Transformers 3: Lyacons
by rylansato
Summary: Seven rogue Decepticons have come to Earth. Their mission, is to defeat Shortstop. They'll do whatever it takes to do so. Shortstop will go through joy and suffering through the course of the year during this story.
1. Engagement

Transformers: Lyacons

Part 1

The night air was cool and calm. It was a perfect mid-August night to just lie out. That's just what Dustin and his girlfriend Sarah were doing. Dustin just lay there on his back on the blanket with Sarah cuddled up next to him. The two were on the Shore of Strouds Run Lake. Strouds Run was a park on the outskirts of the City of Athens in Ohio. People usually swim, have picnics there, pass a football or just merely lay out. The two were there after the park had closed and they were the only ones around. Dustin wasn't worried about getting caught after hours because he was special. Dustin was the human component to the Autobot Headmaster known as Shortstop. He was about 5'7", brown hair, and olive green eyes, with an athletic build. Sarah was a bit shorter than her boyfriend. She was about 5'5" reddish brown hair, olive green eyes, she also had an athletic build to her. Her hair was down a little past her shoulders. She hardly ever wore her hair up in a ponytail or a bun. She and Dustin have been together since he had revealed to her, who he really was. The two just lay there on the blanket watching the stars. They don't get much time to spend with each other since Dustin is always fighting the forces of evil, so they cherish every moment of it. He caressed Sarah's head that was lying on his chest as they both watched the stars.

"It's really peaceful up here," Sarah said breaking the silence.

"Yes it is."

"Whatcha thinkin' about, baby?" she asked

"Oh, I'm just worried." He replied.

"About what?" .

"Well it's been too peaceful. I mean we haven't heard anything from the Decepticons for months and I'm curious on what they're up to

"You shouldn't worry about the Decepticons right now." Sarah said.

"Whys that?"

Sarah shifted herself and leaned on her elbow to look at her boyfriend.

"Well cause you are layin' here with me and you don't need to worry about anything else." Sarah said with a smile.

She leaned over and kissed her boyfriend on the lips, then lay back down on his chest. Then they both noticed something.

"Hey it's a shooting star."

"Make a wish, babe." Dustin said.

Moments passed.

"So what did you wish for?" he asked.

"Oh nothin' . . . just something that has to do with a little diamond ring, that goes right here, on my beautiful little finger." Sarah said innocently as she pointed to here ring finger on her left hand.

At that moment Dustin reached into his pocket and pulled out a little container. He opened it with one hand and held it in front of her face. Her eyes got really big.

"You mean something like this?" he asked slyly.

"OH my god of course I'll marry you." Sarah said enthusiastically while hugging him.

"Hell I didn't even have to ask."

He held her hand and slid the ring on her finger. Then she got on top of him and began to kiss him. He wrapped his arms around her and kissed back.


	2. Tracking the Lyacon Ship

Meanwhile at Autobot City, the Autobots were relaxing.

"Man it's been quiet around here without having to worry about the Decepticons." Bluestreak said.

"Yep not a peep out of those creeps in months." Prowl said

"Their probably still looking for all of their parts after we picked up Shortstop." Cliffjumper said.

"I wouldn't be so sure." Wheeljack said.

"What makes you say that, Wheeljack?"

"Because I'm picking up a ship headed for Decepticon Headquarters."

"Blaster, contact Optimus Prime."

"Hey Prime, we picked up something on the scanners and it's sportin' a Decepticon banner." Blaster reported.

Cliffjumper walked away shaking his head at Blaster's rhyming scheme.

"What is it?" Optimus Prime asked as he walked into the room.

The Autobot war room was a big, bright with gold colored metal plating, with a big screen that the Autobots frequently looked at while looking for answers to the latest Decepticon attack. Teletran was the computers name that gave all the answers.

"A ship has just entered Earth's atmosphere." Wheeljack reported who was at the control panel monitoring any unusual activity.

"Where is it headed?

"Out to sea, right for Decepticon Headquarters" Wheeljack said.

The ship was about 10 meters in length and a little wider than a four lane highway. It was purple and black in color. It had three forward photon cannons and two aft cannons. It was very similar to the Nemesis, the Decepticon ship that crash landed on Earth when the Autobots and Decepticons landed there. The ship flew over the ocean and started circling an area. Then all of a sudden a purple colored tower rose out of the water and a door opened. The ship entered and the tower returned to the sea. The ship sat in the cargo bay of the underwater base. The cargo bay was old and musty. The Decepticons do not use this part of the ship that often. This is the first time they used the cargo bay since they returned from Charr. The bay was somewhat dark due to the fact that only 5 of the 12 lights were operational. Megatron, Galvatron, Cyclonus, Scourge and Soundwave gathered around the ship. The door to the ship opened. Six Decepticons stepped out, three on each side of the ship's hatch. Then a seventh emerged. He stood about as tall as Megatron; his design was that of a seeker, similar to Skywarp and Thundercracker. He had one optic functioning, the left eye had a scar running though it and had burned out.

"I am Weapon and these are the Lyacons." He said as he pointed to the other six.

In the Autobot war room, Optimus Prime wanted answers.

"Where did that ship go?" Prime asked.

"It disappeared around the coordinates of where Decepticon Headquarters is located" Wheeljack replied.

"Wonderful. That's just what we need, more Decepticons." Spike said.

"These are just any ordinary Decepticons. It's the Lyacons. I just had Teletran do a scan on the ship and it matches the configurations of the Lyacon ship." Wheeljack said.

"Who are the Lyacons?"

"They're a group of Decepticon assassins. They work separately and always complete their mission."

"It doesn't make sense, Optimus." Ironhide said. "Why have they come to Earth? I'll bet you that they're here for Shortstop."

"You're probably right. Blaster, contact Shortstop and have him report here at once." Prime ordered.

"You got it, boss."


	3. Getting the Info

Dustin and Sarah were still lying on the ground the next morning. Only this time the blanket was on top of them. Just then Dustin's watch communicator broke the silence.

"Shortstop come in this is Blaster blastin' at you from Autobot City. Please respond."

Dustin reached over and grabbed the communicator.

"This is Shortstop, go ahead Blaster."

"Shortstop, we need you to report to Autobot City on the double. The Decepticons are brewin' up some trouble

"Alright we're on our way. Shortstop out."

Dustin and Sarah got up and got dressed. Dustin put on his Autobot exosuit. The exosuit was black in color. He looked like a miniature robot. The helmet was robotic looking, blue eyes, square face, the face itself was grey but the rest of the helmet was black. The top part that covered the head came down past his ears and stopped at mid-cheek, the arms looked muscular, the chest was square and flat, his stomach area looked like ripped abs. Sarah couldn't tell if it were his abs or the suits. The legs were robotic as well. They both got into Dustin's car, which was a black 2007 Ford GT, and drove to Autobot City. What they didn't realize is that Laserbeak was watching them the entire night.

The Autobot and his girlfriend arrived at Autobot City. They both got out of the car and Dustin put on the helmet of his exosuit. Then jumped into the air and Transformed into the head of Shortstop. When he transformed his legs slid up to the side of his body, his arms folded back and his head slid inside of the body. The car also transformed but into transformed into the body. The front of the car were the arms, the legs slid out from underneath of the car, the rest of the car slid up and became the back of the Transformer, the rear tires came up to his hips. The two pieces connected and now Dustin was known as the mighty Autobot Headmaster, Shortstop. Shortstop was unique from the other Headmasters. The other Headmasters had Nebulon counterparts, he was human, also he was the personality and controller of Shortstop, while the others had Autobot and Nebulon personalities and was controlled by both. Plus he didn't have a mouth. He didn't know what Nick was thinking when he designed it. When Shortstop spoke, his eyes lit up. Wheeljack was the only other Autobot that was similar to him. Wheeljack had no mouth either. When Wheeljack spoke, the two extensions on both sides of his head lit up. The only other time when his eyes light up is when he showed pure emotion. The two walked into Autobot City, then into the war room.

"So what's the big problem here?" Shortstop asked.

"It appears that the Decepticons have called the Lyacons here to Earth." Optimus replied.

"And they are who."

"They are a group of Decepticon assassins, who always get the job done. There are seven of them. Their leader is known as Weapon. He is a seeker, similar design to Skywarp and Thundercracker but has a different transformation. He has one eye and apparently it's the only eye he needs. He is a sniper and doesn't miss. Then there is Savage. He is an ex Predacon. He left the Predacons after he declared them to be 'too wimpy.' He is completely ruthless. His transformation is a black panther. Noxica is a female Decepticon. She transforms into an X shaped jet. She wears a trench coat and has duel laser rifles. Cabal is another. He is very honorable. He doesn't transform into a vehicle or animal, he is covered in body armor when he transforms. Neuros is the scientist of the Lyacons. He can build anything. He is constantly upgrading himself. In his vehicle mode, parts of his robot form are still visible. Kaboom is one who was on Earth in the 1920s. He transforms into a Schubert. He has a gangster accent. His weapon is a laser Tommy gun. Then there is Holocaust. He transforms into a rocket launcher. He is the most brutal of the seven and he decimates entire cities leaving no survivors. They work alone. When they are brought to face on being they take on their opponent one at a time. They never have lost."

"Well if they are here for me they are in for a rude awakening." Shortstop commented.

"One other thing, Shortstop." Prime added. "They'll hit you where it hurts. They'll find your weaknesses and use it against you. They'll definitely use your relationship with Sarah against you."

"Noted, But I'll take 'em down."


	4. Off to Save the Day

Meanwhile at Decepticon Headquarters the Lyacons were making themselves at home and planning their attack.

"So tell me Megatron. What is so important that you had to call us down here and that the mighty Decepticon army couldn't handle?" Weapon asked.

"Shortstop." Megatron replied.

"Shortstop? You mean like the baseball position?"

"No you bent up piece of scrap metal. He's a new Autobot Headmaster and has foiled our plans time and time again. And my troops are made up of incompetence."

"Well the Lyacons can do it. We'll just see how good this Autobot is."

Weapon lifted his left arm and a control panel opened.

"Kaboom report to the Control Room."

"Yes, sir." Kaboom replied.

Dustin and Sarah were talking in an empty room in Autobot City. Sarah was worried. Dustin had transformed back into his exosuit mode and had taken off his helmet.

"I'm worried that you'll lose. You heard what Optimus Prime said about these Lyacons, they don't lose. I'm afraid that you won't comeback." Sarah said as tears rolled down her face.

"You know I'll comeback. I always do and you know I'll always be there for you. Remember I told you I'd always be there for you and remember when the Sharkticons attacked I was there for you then."

Sarah closed her eyes and remembered a time when a Sharkticon almost killed her but didn't because Shortstop had tackled it and tore it apart.

"I will not lose and we will get married."

Dustin put his arm around here and held her close. They rested their heads on one another. Just then the doors opened and Jazz poked his head around the corner.

"Hey, m'man we got some Decepticons messin' around uptown wanna come?" Jazz asked.

"Sure just gimmie a minute."

"Sure man."

Jazz left and the doors closed. Dustin looked back at Sarah and kissed her on her forehead.

"Be back later gotta go to work. You know if you feel scared you can go to my sister's place."

Sarah nodded and fought back tears as her fiancé walked out the door.


	5. Enter Kaboom

The Decepticons were destroying buildings on the west side of Athens. They showed no mercy as they shot photon bursts at people, vaporizing them. They pushed over trees, and then tossed them into the Hocking River causing it to dam up and flood.

"Unidentified vehicles approaching." Skywarp reported.

"Autobots." Cyclonus yelled.

The Decepticons stopped what they were doing to face their enemy. The Autobots transformed and readied themselves for battle.

"So who wants to be taken out first?" Shortstop asked sarcastically.

"Let's start kickin' pig iron." Brawn said.

The Decepticons started firing and the Autobots ducked out of the way and returned fire. Shortstop snuck around and came up behind Cyclonus, He jumped on his back. Cyclonus just grabbed him and threw him to the ground. Cyclonus lifted his foot as if he was going to smash his face in but when he brought it down Shortstop grabbed it and threw him aside. Shortstop got up and jumped onto Cyclonus. They began to wrestle around. Skywarp and Thundercracker transformed into their jet mode and attacked the Autobots from the air. Sunstreaker and Sideswipe jumped onto the two jets and forced them to crash into a hill. Brawn, Gears and Windcharger teamed up on Thrust. The three Autobots tackled the Decepticon and started beating him in the face. Ramjet and Dirge tried to team up against Skyfire but was unsuccessful. Skyfire just grabbed the two Decepticons and smashed them together. A ship was hovering above the battle, its occupants were observing.

"So which Autobot is the one I'm puttin' under, boss?" asked Kaboom.

"The one that is kickin' the diodes out of Cyclonus." Weapon replied.

Kaboom looked at the Autobot Headmaster.

"I'll get that dirty rat. He killed my brother."

"You don't have a brother."

"Oh yeah."

Kaboom jumped out of the ship's open hatch to join the battle below and to face off against Shortstop. He landed on the street about fifty yards away from Shortstop.

"So you're the dirty rat I've come to take out. I'll make you sleep with the fishes." Kaboom said.

Shortstop threw Cyclonus aside and looked at the Lyacon with his arms crossed.

"I can't sleep with the fishes. I'm already spoken for and besides I don't have any protection on me."

The Decepticon gangster just stood there. He pulled out an energon cigar and lit it. He puffed on the cigar a couple of times. Shortstop observed the gangster. He wore a metallic gangster style hat; he was a 1922 Schubert, grey in color with white pinstripes. The Autobots and Decepticons circled around the two warriors.

"I challenge you to a one on one battle."

"I accept."

"Good."

Just then he pulled out his laser Tommy gun and fired. Shortstop dove out of the way to avoid being hit. The Autobot and Decepticon spectators also avoided being hit. Shortstop rolled around dodged photon bursts. Shortstop jumped into the air and fired his arm cannons, which is a triple exhaust pipe when he transforms into his car mode. Kaboom dodged the bursts.

"Were you trying to shoot the ground?"

Shortstop's optics narrowed. He pulled out his duel pistols and fired. He shot off Kaboom's hat and took a chunk out of his cigar. Kaboom's eyes widened as he looked at his now shorter cigar while it was still in his mouth. He looked over at Shortstop who had his right arm fully extended pointing his gun at him, standing sideways and his left arm, from the elbow up was pointing to the sky. His eyes slightly glowing.

"Hmph."


	6. Misfight

Meanwhile the fight was being watched from a distance. Megatron, Galvatron, Soundwave and Scourge were watching.

"It looks like Shortstop may have met his match." Scourge commented.

"Perhaps." Megatron replied.

Then the four Decepticons looked up to see a news helicopter fly by and head for the fight.

"Stupid germs." Scourge shouted as he lifted his weapon and fired.

The photon hit the rear rotor and sent the helicopter plummeting towards the ground. Shortstop looked up, as did Kaboom.

"Protectobots grab that helicopter." Shortstop ordered.

The Protectobots merged into Defensor. The giant Autobot saved the helicopter and its crew. Shortstop turned back to Kaboom but to his surprise was gone. Just then he was hit in the back by a photon charge. Shortstop fell to the ground lifelessly. He just lay there on the ground, his eyes were dark. Everyone was stunned. The crew from the helicopter continued to film, people in Athens were watching the fight on TV. Kaboom walked over to Shortstop.

"You were good kid, real good."

He turned his back to Shortstop to face the other Autobots. Shortstop's eyes lit up. He jumped up to fire at Kaboom but was hit again in the side by a missile from Scourge. The Autobots protested.

"Scourge, you fool, you know damn well you can't interfere with a one on one match. Decepticons retreat." Megatron said.

The Decepticons jumped into the air and flew off.

"Ah drat." Kaboom said as he boarded the shuttle.

"Alright Autobots, load Shortstop into Ratchet and take him back to HQ." ordered Ironhide.

The Autobots returned to Autobot City. Ratchet and Ironhide carried Shortstop into the Medical Bay. They laid him on the table, his wounds were still smoking and his eyes were still dark. Sarah had come running into the room. Brainstorm lifted her up and placed her on his shoulder.

"Is he?" Sarah asked

"No, but came close." Ratchet replied.

"What happened?" Optimus Prime asked.

"Scourge interfered." Prowl said.

"So it was a misfight?"

Prowl nodded.

"What is a misfight?" Sarah asked.

"It's when there is no winner of a one on one battle."

"Uhhh." Shortstop moaned.

They all looked at the fallen Headmaster. His eyes lit up and he sat up.

"Did anyone catch the number on that neutron bomb?" he asked.

Shortstop was a bit disoriented. Ratchet walked over to him.

"Hold your transistors there. We gotta take a look at you." The medic said.

"Naturally."

"Man I'm glad I'm not you." Sunstreaker said. "Cause your paint is all messed up with those burn marks."

Shortstop's optics narrowed.

"I need to get out of this suit."

Shortstop's head flew off and transformed into its exosuit form. Dustin took off his helmet and placed it on the car that had transformed when the head flew off. Sarah came over and hugged him.

"Man I should get knocked around more often." Dustin said.

"When you get done here meet me in debriefing." Prime said.

"Yes, sir."

Prime and the other Autobots walked out of the room while Dustin held Sarah in his arms.


	7. An Original Plan

"Scourge, you fool!" Galvatron yelled.

"But mighty Galvatron." Scourge attempted to say.

"Silence." Galvatron shot back.

The Sweep commander went silent.

"We will fight again. It's just a matter of time." Megatron said.

"Yeah, it is a matter of time. We have all the time in the world." Weapon said as he and his Lyacon followers walked into the room.

"I have a feeling that this will take all of us to beat him. He is unique. He is not like the other Autobots or other Headmasters. He only has one personality, unlike the other headmasters who have robot and Nebulon personalities. Shortstop is only controlled by the human."

"Destroy the human, destroy the robot." Galvatron said.

"Easier said than done." Cyclonus remarked.

"We'll hit him where it hurts." Weapon said.

Shortstop walked into the war room. Optimus Prime and Ironhide were standing in there.

"What are the Decepticons up to now?" Shortstop asked.

"No good as usual." Ironhide replied.

"As of right now they haven't made a move." Prime said.

"Hmmm. Well let's go on the offensive for once." Shortstop suggested.

"I don't think that would be wise. Not just yet anyway. Lets see what they are up to."

Prime walked over to the console and pressed a button.

"Punch, report to the war room at once."

Astroseconds later the Autobot spy walked in.

"Reporting as ordered, Optimus Prime." Punch said.

"I need you to infiltrate Decepticon Headquarters."

"You got it, Prime."

Just then he transformed from Autobot to Decepticon, He was now referred to as Counterpunch and he left for Decepticon Headquarters.

Counterpunch arrived on the shoreline about 100 yards away from where the Decepticon base lay.

"Alright now we'll give the Decepticons a taste in real treachery." He said as he dove into the water and swam to the underwater base. The ship was massive. It could carry 1200 Decepticons easy. He came up to an escape hatch. He entered an access code and the hatch opened. He entered cautiously so no one would hear him and become suspicious. He walked down the corridor and into the Decepticon Control Room.

"Counterpunch I haven't seen you in a while." A voice said behind him.

He turned around to see who it was. It was the red Decepticon jet known as Thrust.

"I like to keep a low profile." Counterpunch replied.

"We're planning another attack against the Autobots so Kaboom can have another crack at Shortstop." Thrust informed him.

"Shortstop doesn't stand a chance. If that incompetent Scourge hadn't interfered Kaboom would have won." Counterpunch said.

"You have something to say?" A voice said behind him.

Counterpunch turned around to see Scourge and the Sweeps behind him.

"Yeah you're incompetent and Kaboom should have won." Counterpunch implied.

Megatron, Galvatron and the other Decepticons turned to see Scourge draw his weapon. Counterpunch quickly disarmed Scourge, picked up the blue Decepticon and hurled him into the Sweeps. The two leaders were impressed by his actions.

"Impressive Counterpunch." Megatron said. "Now back to the plan. We'll attack Athens again, and then have Kaboom take on Shortstop and more than likely Kaboom will win. Once Shortstop is defeated we'll be able to take on the rest of the Autobots."

"_Nice plan. Very original_." Counterpunch thought to himself.

Now that the plan was in the minds of the Decepticons, Counterpunch quickly snuck off back to Autobot City.


	8. Finishing the Fight

Counterpunch arrived back to Autobot City to inform the Autobots of the Decepticons plans. He transformed back into Punch and walked into the war room.

Optimus Prime, Shortstop, Ironhide and Wheeljack were all in there looking at the monitor, waiting for something to happen.

"Optimus Prime, the Decepticons are just going to attack Athens in hopes of luring Shortstop out there to take on Kaboom." Punch reported.

"Good work, Punch." Prime said.

"They aren't going to do anything special like fight Kaboom or else?" Shortstop asked.

"Not that I'm aware."

"Ok, seems simple enough. It looks to me that the Decepticons are running out of ideas for their attacks."

"They don't have to come up with anything special for this if they only want you to fight Kaboom." Prime said.

Just then the alarm sounded. The other Autobots gathered in the war room.

"Autobots, the Decepticons are attacking and they want Shortstop to fight Kaboom. By whatever means necessary do not intervene with the fight."

The Autobots nodded in acknowledgment.

"Autobots transform and roll out." Their leader ordered as they all transformed into their vehicle mode and left to fight the Decepticons once again.

The Decepticons were down on the east end of Athens stomping through houses, restaurants; even the Athens City Recreational Center was destroyed. They all stopped what they were doing when they heard a loud roaring sound.

"Autobots transform and attack." Optimus Prime ordered.

The Autobots transformed and attacked the Decepticons. Jazz ran up and punched Skywarp across the face. He grabbed Jazz and threw him. Jazz transformed into his Porsche mode spun around and headed back towards Skywarp, right before it looked like he was going to run him over, Jazz transformed back into his robot mode and tackled Skywarp. Wheeljack ran up to Thundercracker and picked him up by his wings and hurled him into the air. Soundwave was shooting at mirage. Mirage disappeared and Soundwave lowered his weapon and looked around. Just then he was hit in the back by an invisible force. Mirage reappeared and laughed at him. Optimus Prime battled Megatron and Shortstop took on Galvatron. The two Decepticon leaders lunged at the two Autobots, but the Prime and Shortstop jumped into the air and avoided the two attackers. Ultra Magnus came barging into the scene with Kup and Springer in tow. The three Autobots transformed.

"It looks like we're a little late for the party." Springer said.

"Well let's join the fun." Kup said.

While Prime was fighting Megatron, Prime's comm unit beeped. Prime threw Megatron aside and answered the call.

"What is it?"

"Prime its Sarah I couldn't reach Dustin on his comm link. Is he ok?"

"Affirmative, he's taking on Galvatron at the moment

As Prime was talking into his comm link Megatron got up and aimed his arm cannon at Prime's back. All of a sudden Shortstop tackled Megatron. Shortstop clung to Megaton's back while he desperately attempted to get him off. Finally Shortstop was able to get a hold of Megatron's weapon, pulled it off of his arm and he took off running with it. Megatron took off after him. Optimus shut down his comm link and turned around to see that his Autobots were winning the battle. Shortstop came up next to Prime, still holding Megatron's weapon.

"That was Sarah. She was worried."

"Oh well then at least she cares."

Megatron came running at Shortstop, who swung Megatron's weapon like a bat, at Megatron connecting with his face and knocking him over. Just then Shortstop was rocked by a photon charge that had hit him in the back. Prime swung around to see that Kaboom had entered the battle.

"Let's get this over with." Kaboom said.

"Fine by me." Shortstop replied.

The Autobots and Decepticons gathered around the two warriors to watch the battle. Shortstop bent down and picked up a rock. He tossed it up and down a couple of times.

"What are you going to do, beat me with a rock?" Kaboom mockingly asked.

Shortstop continued to toss it up and down. Then he filled the rock with explosive energy and threw it at Kaboom. It hit Kaboom in the chest and knocked him over. Kaboom shot back up and started firing at Shortstop with his Tommy gun. Shortstop dove around and returned fire with his duel pistols. Just then Shortstop charged at Kaboom, who continued to fire, he cocked back his fist and punched Kaboom in the face. Kaboom fell back and Shortstop took advantage. He jumped on the fallen Decepticon and continued to let him have "it." His eyes were glowing slightly. Finally Kaboom was able to get a hit on him and it knocked him back. Kaboom pulled out a pistol and fired. Shortstop reached behind him and pulled out his spoiler, which was also a boomerang and threw it at him. Not only did it disarm the Lyacon, it took his head off. The body of the Lyacon fell to the ground. Everyone was shocked. The boomerang came back, Shortstop caught it and replaced on his back.

"Decepticons retreat!" ordered Megaton.

The Decepticons jumped in the air and returned to their underwater base. The Autobots gathered around the victorious Headmaster.

The Autobots returned to base. Shortstop pulled in and his fiancé was there to greet him. Dustin got out of his car and kissed her.

"I told you I'd be back. I love you and you always come back for the ones you love." Dustin said.

"Mushy, but true." Brawn said who was standing nearby and observing Dustin and Sarah. Windcharger and Bluestreak nodded.

In Decepticon Headquarters, Megaton was infuriated.

"How did he beat a Lyacon?" he demanded.

"He's good real good." Rumble said.

Megaton glared at him. Rumble raised his hands to his head and backed off.

"I had a feeling this was going to happen, and I figure that it will take all of us." Weapon said calmly.

"Mark my words, I will defeat him." Megaton said.

"Get some new material champ." A voice said behind him.

Megaton turned around to find the ghost of Starscream standing there.

"Starscream what are you doing here?" Megaton demanded.

"I was in the neighborhood and I just wanted to see how my old pals were doing."

"No matter how hard you try you won't be able to enter our bodies and take control." Megaton said.

"Oh I don't want your pathetic bodies I'm just here observing the situation here. I'm neutral now I'm not on anyone's side. I'm just watching the fun of you two destroy each other and of course to get on your circuits."

"We'll see about that." Megaton said as he fired his arm cannon at the ghost.

The blast went right through Starscream and blew a hole in the wall. Water came rushing in. All of the Decepticons evacuated the room.

"STARSCREAM!" Megaton yelled as he was in over his head with water.

Starscream laughed at him.


	9. Sunstreaker vs Tracks

Part 2

Skydive awoke in his quarters. He climbed out of his restoration chamber excited about something.

"Computer what is today's date?" he asked.

"October 21st 2008" the computer replied

"Perfect." He said to himself.

He walked out of his quarters. He walked down the corridor and into the rec room. A place were Jazz like to refer was to just 'Chill.'

"Yo' Divers C'mere!" It was the suitably irritating voice of Slingshot.

"I wish he wouldn't call me that." Thought Skydive as he ambled over towards the small crowd, which slingshot was a member. Slingshot sat with Airraid, Powerglide, Sunstreaker, Sideswipe and Bluestreak, in a quite serious huddle, jets on one side and cars on the other. Skydive looked around the room. Blaster and Warpath were talking to one another, Shortstop and Windcharger were sitting at another table playing cards, Hoist and Grapple were also in the room.

"We were just discussing the merits of wings over wheels." Powerglide explained. "Care to join our side."

"Yeah, being a jet beats being a ground ridden slow poke any day, right Divers?" Slingshot said obnoxiously.

"You're just blowing out of your afterburners, Slingshot. Being a car is much better than being a jumped up paper dart like you." Sideswipe snapped angrily.

Skydive noticed Slingshot's fists clench, and braced himself; this was about to get ugly. He was familiar with this age-old discussion. It was usually just friendly rivalries, the Autobot equivalent of the "My Dad's stronger than your Dad" game, but today Slingshot seemed tense. Then a haughty voice piped up, clearing the tension and deflecting it toward a new victim.

"I believe it to be better to have the best of both worlds." It was unmistakably Tracks. As usual, Tracks was sitting alone at one of the tables, with a data pad in one hand and a steaming cup of oil in the other.

"Who asked you, Tracks?" spat Sunstreaker, saying Tracks' name with such venom it seemed more like an insult than a name.

"I was just saying that I get the best of both worlds, the freedom of a jet combined with the stylish lines and sheer finesse of my vehicular mode," Tracks had put down his cup and pad and swivelled his chair to face Sunstreaker.

"Finesse? Pfft! Please, a Corvette with finesse?" snickered Sunstreaker mockingly.

The tension was palpable. The formally gung-ho bunch of jets and cars had backed off now, watching with morbid interest as the two Autobot warriors entered their confrontation. Warpath and Blaster had ceased fire, but Windcharger and Shortstop, who could usually only be roused from their regular hexagonal card game by a full scale Decepticon attack, hadn't taken heed of the situation. Skydive had seen the two overly vain Autobots get bitchy before, but this time it looked like the gloves were off.

"Oh, my vehicle form is far more stylish than your bumpy yellow rolling mid-life crisis, you over strung jumped up canary go-cart!"

"I am not canary yellow, you bad sci-fi movie reject! Come over here and I'll rip off your ridiculous wings! Red go-faster stripes? Oh please!"

Tracks leapt up from his chair with a fearsome roar and into a full on fly kick aimed at Sunstreaker's head. Sunstreaker ducked, and as Tracks sailed over his head he struck back with an uppercut, sending Tracks crashing to the ground with a terrible clang. Tracks got up and stared in horror at the brand new Sunstreaker's fist shaped dent in his chest hull. He bombed forward and retaliated with a dragon kick to Sunstreaker's own torso, followed by two swift lighting punches. Tracks had been watching cheesy martial art films with Rahul, and had picked up a few moves. Slingshot sat back in his chair smiling.

While the fight was going on Windcharger and Shortstop was still playing their card game.

"I've got ten on Sunstreaker." Windcharger said without looking up.

"Easy money. You're on." Shortstop replied also without looking up.

Arcee and Firestar were disgusted with the fight and they left the room.

"Men." Arcee said walking out the door.

The cheers from the crowd drowned out Skydive's utterances into his communicator as Tracks bitch-slapped Sunstreaker to the ground. Sunstreaker transformed as Tracks went to put the boot in, speeding quickly behind his opponent and transforming back to robot mode, landing a powerful blow to the left side of Tracks' head with his emerging forearm, buckling Tracks' face plate and bending his missile launcher inwards, much to Sideswipe's whooping delight. Tracks reached for his face in pain, as he did his left wing grated down Sunstreaker's victorious figure, removing a large strip of paint. Practically the entire audience gasped as Sunstreaker's optics narrowed.

They all knew that Sunstreaker was going to go nuts now that his paint job was ruined. Windcharger and Shortstop still hadn't looked up from their card game. Sunstreaker lowered he arms and his grin faded. He got so infuriated, he tackled Tracks and broke a table in the process. The table happened to be the table where Windcharger and Shortstop were playing their card game. They still hadn't looked up.

"Got any twos?" Shortstop asked.

"Go Fish." Windcharger replied.

Without looking away from his hand, Shortstop reached down and picked up a card off the floor.

Sunstreaker took a step towards the cowering Tracks, when a large, booming voice filled the Rec Room like a nuclear powered sonic boom.

"Stop this NOW!"

In the Rec-Room entry hatch stood the imposing figure of Optimus Prime, his face as angry as Jupiter thunder, backed up by a bemused looking Ironhide.

"Man, o'man, Ratchet's gonna have a field day with you two," quipped Ironhide. Prime shot him a look at him that could down a Decepticon jet at 4000 yards, causing the playful Ironhide to back off a step, holding his hands up in mock surrender.

"We are in deep slag now." Sideswipe whispered to Bluestreak.


	10. Skydive's Request

Optimus Prime had made it clear on more than one occasion that fighting would not be tolerated within the Autobot ranks. It had happened only twice before since the Autobots arrived on Earth, not counting the activation of the Dinobots or the frequent slaging matches or near misses. Prime had looked over to see Slingshot quickly wipe his smile off of his face. Once Blades and Slingshot had come to blows, Blades had actually sliced Slingshot's arm clean off during that one, then one week later Cliffjumper had delivered Slingshot yet another sound beating. So it came as little surprise to Prime to see Slingshot amongst the guilty looking fight fans in the Rec Room. Slingshot was a troublemaker. He had even driven the usually good-natured Ironhide to nearly belt him before. Prime knew this was due to Slingshot's insecurities, something that Prime had attempted to fix before, with apparent success. But Slingshot was not the perp this time; much to Prime's surprise, that dubious honor belonged to Sunstreaker and Tracks. He would deal with those two soon enough, at the moment they were in the capable hands of Ratchet and First Aid after Ironhide had dragged them, kicking and screaming in Sunstreaker's case, off to the repair bay. But for now it was the turn of the fight fans to be on the receiving end of a patented Optimus Prime stern lecture.

For nearly ten minutes he lectured them on the ethics of allowing such violence to occur, before confining them all to Headquarters and removing their Rec-Room privileges for a month, much to the chagrin of Windcharger and Shortstop, which earned them a threat of Prime suddenly becoming aware of the "secret" gambling that went on. Prime was well aware of the gambling matches that occurred in the ranks, and although he didn't really approve of it he allowed it to continue, as it was good for morale. The angry Autobot leader then dismissed his sullen troops, gesturing subtly to Skydive to stay behind.

"Thank you, Skydive," the Autobot leader placed his great hand on Skydive's shoulder. "That was most appreciated. Of course, none of that applies to you, but I'd stay out of Rec-room for a while."

"Yeah, low profile job. Say, Prime..." Skydive used Prime's name in the extended questioning tone that belied that he wanted something.

Yes," sighed Prime wearily. He had heard that tone earlier that day; from someone he did not usually hear it from, that Autobot more readily lavished Prime in a steady shower of low whining.

"I was wondering if I could, erm; head out into the city today, Y'see..."

"Save it, you can go." The Decepticons would likely still be licking their wounds after the first Lyacon incident a few weeks ago, so Prime reasoned it would be safe to have so many Autobots out at the moment, besides, the newly repaired Protectobots were on standby if any thing untoward occurred.

"Thanks Prime!" Skydive chirped like a child who had finally been let out to play.

"What's got him so excited?" Prime pondered this for a second before realizing that he had more important things to deal with

"Uhhh," he groaned out loud. "Now for Tracks and Sunstreaker."

Skydive skipped through the corridors of Autobot HQ with all the joy of Omega Supreme after winning an hour of happy time alone with the unarmed Constructicons

_That's if Omega Supreme can feel joy,_ realized Skydive. He was trying to think if anybody could be in a better mood than himself right now, and had so far only come up with Perceptor having a fire side chat with Einstein and Alpha Trion, and Fireflight on a date with Moonracer. He then realized that he shouldn't be thinking that particular thought as he was always wary of telepaths, and Fireflight wanted that kept secret. Telepaths freaked Skydive out, that's probably why he hated Soundwave so much.

_Oh wait, that's because Soundwave is freaky giant Decepticon creep who tried to rip off your arms one time_, realized the now ruffled Skydive. Telepaths wigged him, Soundwave wigged him more.

And so, with telepath paranoia eating away at his good mood, Skydive ran into his friend Swoop, which instantly cheered him up. Swoop was just exiting the Dinobot closet as Skydive passed it. He smiled as he noticed Skydive.

"Skydive!" chirped Swoop, waving.

Skydive was one of the few Autobots that treated Swoop with any civility, and actually socialized with the cheerful Dinobot. The two would practice aerial maneuvers together, Skydive attempting to copy Swoop's meteor like bombing runs whilst teaching his friend the finer points of evasive flight patterns

"We go do fancy flying now?" Swoop need to stretch his wings after having been cooped up for too long." Swoop sounded hopeful, and Skydive hated to

disappoint him.

"Sorry Swoop, I'm going into town."

An idea flashed through his mind

"Say, wanna come with?"


	11. Repair Bay

"I've just got off the horn with Huffer; He says your replacement parts will be ready within the hour, though matrix only knows why you two knuckleheads deserve them so quickly."

Ratchet walked into the main repair bay from his office. His news seemed to sail over the brooding pairs' heads, Tracks lightly nodding his shattered head, causing First Aid to hold it still while he worked on it, and Sunstreaker completely ignoring it, sitting with his arms folded and looking seriously pissed.

"Hello? Earth to Sunstreaker? Actually, should that be Cybertron to Sunstreaker? I can never tell..." Ratchet saw his attempt at humor was going nowhere; Sunstreaker's scowl not deviating from its southerly position. "Scrap you then, for crying out loud," Ratchet's good humor had faded now, melting back into his usual cranky disposition.

"How long is he going to keep that up?" inquired First Aid?

"I haven't the foggiest, but one time after he had been drag racing with Sideswipe and got a tiny scratch in his paintwork, he sulked for two weeks."

"Will you kindly watch what you are doing?" It was Tracks. Ratchet wasn't sure if First Aid had made a slip up, or if Tracks was just sick of hearing about Sunstreaker, but he didn't care. He carried on his conversation with First Aid all the same

The loud guffawing of the two medics was just white noise to Sunstreaker. He didn't even notice the loud, indignant cry of protest from Tracks. He was angry. Imagine that stuck up corvette insulting his perfect bodywork, and then have the audacity to actually ruin it!

_I bet he's just jealous_, the fuming Sunstreaker concluded. He twitched with anger when he thought about how Tracks was being fixed first, granted the extensive damage he had caused to Tracks was far greater than the superficial hull damage Sunstreaker had received, but that wasn't the point to the vain yellow Autobot. He lifted his folded arms to reveal the long, wide scratch in his paintwork. If he were human he would have broken down and cried.

Optimus Prime entered the repair bay with the heavy burden of his responsibilities weighing down on his mighty shoulders. He expected squabbles to break out in such a ragtag mismatched group as the Autobots, but not for them to develop into life or death brawls between formally close friends. Tracks and Sunstreaker were very similar individuals, perhaps too similar. They had formally gotten on well, their constant claims that each was the better looking developing into a friendly rivalry that transferred into an excellent working relationship, one that even rivaled the one between Sunstreaker and his own brother

But a while ago a bitter gulf had grown between the friends. Each now viewed the other scornfully, and for no apparent reason, certainly not one Prime could put his finger on. Even Smokescreen, Prime's usual link to the inner workings of his troops, was stumped on this one. After about a minute of looking over the damage done to the two, Prime spoke up

"Any body feel like giving me an explanation?"


	12. Gears Singing

The relative calm of the Athens City skyline was about to be shattered. Swoop and Skydive burst into the city at tremendous speed; the two daring Autobot air warriors zigzagged through the skyscrapers like flitting UFOs on a B-movie style rampage

Skydive streaked toward one of the colossal Human structures, as if on a collision course. At the last possible second he entered into a dramatic vertical climb, shooting up the side of the building and leveling out into a horizontal path, much to the amazement of Swoop. His Pterosaurian friend jetted to his side.

"Me wish Swoop could do that! That awesome Skydive!" squawked Swoop in child-like awe

"Thanks, I'll have to see about teaching you that. It's all in the timing of the lateral thrusters, you see..." Skydive stopped as he noticed that they were passing their destination. "I'll show you later, but for now, we're here." He transformed to robot mode, entering a gentle hover. Swoop did the same.

"C'mon, down here."

The two Autobots flew down to the street, landing outside a rundown looking store. The sign in the window said "Hartley's Military Antiques- For all your combat needs!"

The faded sign was written in distinctly 60's style lettering, not that Skydive noticed that. A grizzled looking old man emerged from the dirty little store, holding in his hands a DVD. He removed the cigarette he was smoking from his mouth and began to cough violently for a few seconds, before snorting back the thick mucus he had shaken loose and opening his mouth to speak.

Skydive knelt down and held out a hand. The man set it in Skydive's hand.

"Thanks, Jake." Skydive said.

"No problem, Skydive." Jake replied. "I saw one of your friends enter the bar across the street. I don't know his name. He is red and blue, if that helps any."

"Not really but we'll find out who it is." Skydive replied.

"Ok then, have fun." Jake said.

"I'll talk to you later Jake. Take care." Skydive said as Jake walked back into his store.

Skydive and Swoop walked across the street wondering who could be over there.

"What's in the box?" Swoop asked.

"Its old footage of dogfights from 1939 to present." Skydive replied.

"Who is over there? Me Swoop wants to know." Swoop said

"I don't know. It sounds like Optimus Prime but why would Prime be in a bar?" Skydive wondered.

The two Autobots walked in and to their surprise the red and blue Autobot they were seeking was Gears and he was singing Karaoke. Not only was he singing Karaoke, but also the song he was singing was "I Will Survive." They both started laughing. Gears noticed them.

"Oh damn." Gears thought to himself.

The two walked over to the singing Autobot.

"Hey Gears, how's it goin'?" Skydive said with a smile.

"If you tell anyone about this I will rip out your circuits and make you eat them." Gears said.

"Our lips are sealed." Skydive said.

"Good" Gears said.

"Well, I don't know about them though." Skydive said pointing to the back.

Apparently Eject and Rewind and snuck into the bar and observed Gears little secret.

"Eject, Rewind! If either of you say one little word I'll rip out your word processors."

The two cassettes made the motion of zipping their lips. Then they both laughed. Then they darted out the door.


	13. Sunstreaker's Reasoning, Frenzy's Plan

"Remember when Popular Mechanics magazine did that feature on the Autobots in '03?"

First Aid had drawn quite a crowd of Autobots in the Rec room. He had come straight from the repair bay to divulge the juicy details of the after events of the brawl. He had already tossed the scraps of knowledge he had on the injuries to the ravenous huddle like meat to a pack of wild dogs, and was now moving onto the reason why they fought in the first place.

"Yeah," recalled Jazz fondly, "That photographer really caught my good side," he chuckled

"Oh, and which side would that be?" asked Mirage, he sounded deadpan serious, but every one knew he was playing. Jazz reacted with a playful tap to Mirage's shoulder.

"Anyway," continued First Aid, "Remember how Tracks got a whole double page all to him self..."

"... And Sunstreaker didn't." Jazz was getting the picture. "Man, I bet that really bruised his ego. That explains why those two have been waltzing round like Peacocks in heat for the past few years"

"And Prime spent the best part of an hour getting this out of them?"

Asked Hotspot, he sounded most disappointed

"Yeah, apparently Tracks has really been rubbing it in lately."

At this point the Rec-room doors opened and Eject entered. He called for attention, but nobody listened

"Hello! Guys! Gears sings karaoke! Guys!" None of the assembled Autobots paid a blind bit of notice to the tiny Eject; they were far too engrossed in their established conversation

"Well, if you aren't going to listen to me, I'll just tell you any way! If you don't listen, you don't know!" Eject proceeded to explain the situation in detail, giving precise details of Gears' activities and future whereabouts. But nobody listened. At least not anybody who he could see. Exasperated at the lack of attention he was receiving, he left for a much needed recharge cycle, unaware that some one had been doing to him exactly what he had been doing earlier. Some one hidden in the support beams. Laserbeak.

Megatron sat and looked at the repair reports in disdain. Decepticon headquarters was in shambles, and a quarter of his forces were still out of commission. In times like this Megatron looked for a scapegoat to vent his anger on, it was the only way he could maintain his self-control. He looked down at the Reflector third that had handed him the report. He considered his next action before having his chain of rather malicious thought interrupted by a familiar and welcome voice

"MEGATRON," it was Soundwave. "LASERBEAK HAS RETURNED"

"Excellent!" Megatron anticipated a similar state of affairs at the Autobot camp.

"Report."

"THE AUTOBOTS ARE IN A BATTLE WORTHY STATE"

"What! After the trashing we gave them?"

Soundwave sensed Megatron's anger, and tried to proceed with caution

"LASERBEAK ALSO FOUND THAT THE AUTOBOTS HAVE DISCOVERED A NEW ELEMENT ON AN ASTEROID IN THE TIGRUS SECTOR"

"What kind of element?" Megatron's anger was growing

"ELEMENT AT FIRST SEEMED TO HAVE INTRIGUING BIO-CONDUCTIVE QUALITIES DUE TO UNUSUAL MICROBES FOUND GROWING ON IT. ELEMENT WAS SUBSEQUENTLY FOUND TO BE USELESS BY THE AUTOBOTS."

"Is that it?" Megatron sounded calmer

"TWO AUTOBOTS WERE INVOLVED IN A SERIOUS BRAWL"

"Ha ha, Prime's having a little difficulty keeping the rabble in check, eh?"

Megatron felt much better, and proceeded to dismiss Reflector.

"Was that all he found of interest?"

"AN AUTOBOT WILL BE APPEARING IN A HUMAN DRINKING ESTABLISHMENT FOR ENTERTAINMENT PURPOSES. APPEARANCE IS ONLY MINOR, AUTOBOT OF LITTLE SIGNIFICANCE"

Before Megatron could respond, Starscream entered the main control room. His presence was felt by all, the various Decepticons stationed at the control consoles all looked up immediately at his arrival. Starscream had a reputation, one he was extremely proud of, as someone to be watched

"I have just come back from Trypticon and had a little talk with Shockwave, almighty Megatron," the condescending sarcasm was apparent in Starscream's voice. "...And he isn't a happy little lamb-bot"

"I don't remember killing you and allowing you to become a humble messenger," Megatron dug at Starscream as he walked over to a communication console

"No, that's still Soundwave's lot," retorted Starscream, directing a malicious glance at Soundwave. "I was just filling in while he collected his homing pigeonoid." Soundwave narrowed his optics at Starscream, who responded with an evil grin

"Shockwave, report," Megatron activated the monitor, conjuring up the bizarre visage of the Decepticon custodian of Trypticon

"Megatron," there was a distinct tone of agitation in the usually emotionless voice of Shockwave. "Those accursed Autobot witches have attacked Trypticon again and destroyed his transforming cog" he stated coldly. "I require more troops to annihilate them.

As Shockwave continued his report to Megatron, Soundwave received two eject requests amongst his in-vision diagnostics. They were from Rumble and Frenzy. Usually Soundwave would ask why his cassettes wanted to eject, but he was weary and low on power, so decided to let his miniature helpers go unmolested for once. He pressed his eject button, and Rumble and Frenzy spewed forth from his chest pack like rectangular missiles, transforming in midair into their almost identical robot forms

"Thanks Soundwave!" called Frenzy as both he and Rumble made a quick dash for the exit

"Kids today..." tutted Starscream sarcastically

"Oh this is gonna be sweet!" said the excitable Frenzy to his brother.

Both tiny Decepticons had taken to the air, and were jetting through the corridors of the Decepticon base at considerable speed. As they flew, they passed a porthole, which showed a barnacle encrusted Mixmaster scrubbing algae from the hull. The Construction chemist had a face that could send a Sharkticon running for its maker, though there were several barnacle growths around it

"Yeah," chuckled Rumble. "If we can get out of the base

It was a little known fact amongst the Decepticon ranks that the Spy cassettes whilst inside Soundwave could interface, both for communication purposes and to learn of another's findings on a spy mission. Rumble and Frenzy had done this when Laserbeak returned, learning of Gears' little star turn and making a basic plan in order to have a little fun. Their plan was simple. Get out of HQ, get to the karaoke bar, and do a little heckling.

The pair arrived outside the docking tower access port. The "port" was actually a large hanger; complete with everything needed to maintain the Decepticon air force. Rumble clipped the entry panel, opening the doors with a serpentine pneumatic hiss. The pair ventured in, marching in sync with their characteristic tough-guy strut. Expecting to find the hanger empty they were thrown to find a vehicular Vortex being loaded by two sentinels.

"Oh slag, what are we gonna do now?" Frenzy was worried. Megatron had imposed a strict curfew on the Decepticons, confining them to base unless they had permission from the head honcho himself. The pair had planned to sneak out unnoticed, something that had now been scuppered. Rumble was however, unfazed. He was slightly brighter than Frenzy, and had already worked out how to turn this situation to their advantage.


	14. Bad Puns

Gears shuffled on stage, muttering inaudibly to him self. He aligned his optics to the monitor as the music started, before he noticed a glint of metal in the crowd. Skydive and Swoop waved at him from the audience, the grins on their faces wider than the Vos canyon on Cybertron. Gears froze. He noticed the manager gesturing at him emphatically to start singing. Fear had corrupted his logic center; he had no idea what to do. So, he started to sing

"F-first I was afraid, I was putrefied- I mean petrified, thinking I could never live with out you by my slide..."

"His singing was terrible and off key, yet Swoop and Skydive cheered and whistled, empowering Gears. Suddenly, he felt good, his confidence grew

"And then I spent so many nights thinking how you did me wrong,"And I grew strong..."

"Not strong enough, Autobum!" a high-pitched squeaky voice called from the back of the bar. Rumble and Frenzy had just joined the party

"No encores for you!" screamed Frenzy, un-shouldering his blaster and taking aim at the stage.

Rumble did the same, before firing. A steady stream of highly charged plasma particles spewed forth from the barrels of both cassette warriors' guns toward the stage like purple streaks of lightening. Gears leapt clear just in time, the blasts hitting the speakers, causing the pumping disco music to die as if it was the beginning of the 80's

The human customers scattered, whilst the Autobot customers decided to evict the noisy troublemakers. Swoop and Skydive both shot up, drawing their weapons and returning fire on the mini Decepticons. Rumble and Frenzy backed off, still firing, their shots destroying most off the fixtures off the club, much to the horror off the cowering manager. Suddenly the roar off a powerful engine filled the club.

Gears had transformed to armored transport mode, and was bowling through the remaining furniture on a direct collision course with the Decepticons. They blasted away at him, their shots bouncing harmlessly off of his reinforced hull. He ploughed into them with an almighty metallic crash, entering into a tailspin, which sent all three titanic Transformers crashing through the club wall, and into the street

Gears transformed as Rumble lunged at him, knocking Rumble to the ground with one blow from his mighty fist. Suddenly a foul screeching noise filled his audio sensors like a thousand screaming shrike bats, causing him to drop to the ground in agony. It was Frenzy, who began to advance toward the helpless Gears menacingly.

"Hey Frenzy!" Gears' Autobot comrades had joined the fray, Skydive calling out to the grumpy minibot's attacker. "Why don't you cool off some?" He fired a liquid nitrogen rocket at Frenzy, freezing him as solid as a plutonian glacier

Rumble picked him self-up. "Why do Autobots always make such bad puns?"


	15. The Second Lyacon

At that moment, in Decepticon Headquarters, Megatron, Galvatron and Weapon were devising a plan.

"We'll send Shortstop into the forest to face another Lyacon. In the forest, he can't use his vehicle mode as effectively as in the city." Galvatron said.

"I like the forest idea but I don't think that would matter much." Weapon said.

"Shortstop is an Autobot and he'll try his hardest not to destroy his surroundings. But who will you send?"

"I know exactly who I'll send. I'll send Savage." Weapon replied.

Soundwave lifted his hand to the side of his head. He kept it there for a few moments then lowered.

"Something wrong, Soundwave?"

"RUMBLE AND FRENZY SNUCK OUT OF DECEPTICON HEADQUARTERS AND HAVE ENGAGED IN BATTLE WITH THREE AUTOBOTS."

"Such incompetence. Must I do everything myself?" Megatron said.

"Lets take care of these Autobots." Weapon said.

Megatron nodded. The docking tower rose, the door opened and a fleet of Decepticons took to the air to take on only three Autobots.

Meanwhile, back in Athens, Dustin and Sarah were just leaving a movie theater. They walked out of the theater with an arm around each other. Sarah held her head up against Dustin's body as they walked to Dustin's transforming car. He was enjoying his time off; he didn't get much of it with the Lyacons in town. Dustin hit the unlock button on his remote, then opened the passenger door to let Sarah get in first, and then he walked to his own side and got in.

"So what did you think of the movie?" Dustin asked as he turned on his car.

"It was a good movie, I really liked it." Sarah replied while fastening her seatbelt.

"I'm glad you enjoyed it." Dustin said.

He pulled out of the movie theater parking lot at headed home. The ride home was a quiet one. Just as Dustin was about to say something, he noticed that Sarah had drifted to sleep. He decided to let her sleep. She has gone through a lot in the past couple of months.

"Poor girl, she needs her sleep." Dustin thought to himself. He arrived at his house minutes later. He went over to the passenger side, opened the door and pulled out Sarah. Without waking her up he carried her to the bedroom and placed her in the bed. He pulled the sheets over her and then kissed her on the head. He quietly left the room and went into the living room and turned on the TV. He had to see if his football team the Pittsburgh Steelers were still undefeated. And they were. Just then his communicator watch beeped.

"This is Shortstop. Go ahead Prime."

"Shortstop, the Decepticons have engaged Gears, Skydive and Swoop at the Athens Karaoke Bar. You're the closest I need you to transform and we'll meet you there." Prime instructed.

"Got it. I'm on my way, Chief." He replied.

He walked back to the bedroom and whispered into Sarah's ear.

"I've got to go to go save the world. If you need me call me on my wrist comm. I'll be back later. I love you babe." He said as he kissed her on her forehead.

Sarah made a noise; Dustin wasn't sure if was in acknowledgment or if she was just dreaming. He just let her sleep as he left the room and headed for the karaoke bar.

Dustin arrived at karaoke bar. The building was destroyed. He jumped into the air and transformed into Shortstop. The battle was still raging but his comrades were severely outnumbered. He pulled out his duel pistols and started firing.

"Hey guys mind if I join?"

Moments later the other Autobots arrived. They all transformed into their robot mode. They joined in as well.

"Aerialbots merge to become Superion." Ordered Silverbolt.

They landed, connected together and formed the mighty transformer.

"Stunticons merge to become Menasor." Motor Master yelled.

The Decepticon land force connected together. The two getsalts fought each other. The battle raged. Plasma bursts from one side, Photon charges from the other.

Jazz ran up transformed into his Porsche mode; his speakers slid out and started emanating light and sound to disorient the Decepticons. The Decepticons covered their audio preceptors. They all stumbled around in agony until Savage came running out of the woods and pounced on Jazz. He lifted his claw to make a swipe into the Autobot, but Shortstop came running and tackled Savage.

"So you're the Autobot I'm going to tear apart?" Savage said in his growling voice.

"Well you got the first part right. But I think I'll be the one that will be doing the tearing apart here." Shortstop said arrogantly.

"We'll see about that Autobot."

Savage turned around and ran into the woods and disappeared. Shortstop ran after him. The fight continued without the two warriors.

Shortstop walked cautiously through the woods. He looked around with every step he took. As he stepped through the woods he was being watched by Savage.

"I can see you Autobot. Can you see me?"

"Obviously not since you are asking me this."

"You sarcasm will not save you, Autobot."

The Lyacon charged at the Autobot. Shortstop turned around just in time to see Savage attack. Shortstop strafed to the side but was hit in the shoulder by Savage's paw. He watched Savage circle him. Then he attacked again. He jumped on Shortstop. The Autobot lost his footing and fell over. Savage pinned him down.

"Now Autobot you will die."

Shortstop struggled to gain some sort of advantage. Then he transformed into his vehicle mode and sped out from underneath of Savage. He transformed back into his robot mode and readied himself for another attack. Savage attacked again. This time Shortstop pulled out his spoiler and used is as a shield against the ex-Predacon's attack. He hit Savage across the face with it, knocking him over. Savage got up and stared down the Autobot.

"You think you have what it takes to beat me, Autobot?" Savage growled.

"Yeah I do."

Savage charged again. This time Shortstop pulled out his duel pistols stuck them together, flipped them around and hit Savage in the face with the handles. The Lyacon withdrew his attack and stumbled around. Then faced Shortstop and charged. He pounced on him; he drove his claw into the left shoulder joint of the headmaster. Shortstop punched Savage across the face then used his foot to push his enemy off of him. Savage attempted to get up but Shortstop kicked him in the face. The Lyacon fell over. Shortstop looked at his wound. Sparks flew out of the exposed circuitry.

"_Damn, that hurt. I'm going to feel that in the morning."_ Shortstop thought to himself.

He looked over to his fallen enemy. Savage started to get up; he collapsed and lay there. Shortstop raised his spoiler to make a final blow but his arms wouldn't let him do it. He lowered his weapon and placed it on his back. He then picked up the fallen Lyacon and carried out of the woods. As he returned from the woods, the other Transformers stopped fighting to see what the headmaster was up to.

The Decepticons, noticed that they had lost this fight, left the scene.

"What are you doing?" Cliffjumper said.

"I couldn't just leave him there. I think when I bashed him in the head it messed up his personality and identity components and now I think we could repair him as an Autobot." Shortstop replied.

"Ratchet, transform."

The medic did as he was told and Shortstop placed the injured Lyacon inside. The victorious Autobots returned to their base, with the exception of Gears, Swoop and Skydive, they went to another karaoke bar to finish the song.

At the Autobot base, Shortstop was full of himself. Why wouldn't he be? He had just beaten two Lyacons: The Decepticons that never lose.

"That's two of them that I have beaten."

He raised his arm and dropped his hand as if he were shooting a basketball one handed.

"Count it." He said with a smile.

Meanwhile in the repair bay, Ratchet and Wheeljack were working on Savage.

"Can you repair him?" Prime asked.

"It can be done. I just feel weird repairing a Decepticon."

"He's no longer a Decepticon. He is an Autobot now." Prime stated while looking at the black panther.

"This gives me an idea. Prime, with your permission I would like to create new Autobots. Only this time they're animals and are able to take on Predaking." Wheeljack said with sound of a child asking its mother for a new toy.

Prime pondered the thought for a moment.

"Hmm, animal Autobots. You have my authorization."

Sunstreaker sat and sulked. He was perched atop of a hill overlooking Autobot City, watching the sunset. The burning light of the Earth's sun caught his newly redone paintwork, and reflected off of it with the magnificent glowing brilliance of a supernova.

"_Wow, I'm just the greatest"_, thought Sunstreaker with a smile. His spirits were lifted. He took a deep sample of the cool twilight air with his factory sensors. It's good to be online, he realized with another smile

"Hey," a voice came from behind him. It was Tracks. "Nice up here, is it not?"

Sunstreaker's smile faded as he proceeded to ignore Tracks. The light of the sunset reflected off of Tracks' body now, directly into Sunstreaker's optics. He put a hand up to shield them with a sigh of annoyance.

"Oh, sorry about that. Look..." Tracks stopped as Sunstreaker raised his hand.

Looking into the flaming tangerine sky had made Sunstreaker realize that life was too short for petty arguments over magazine centerfolds. After all, there were plenty of other magazines, and he knew he was the better looking.

"Save it," Sunstreaker extended his hand with a smile. Tracks shook it, returning Sunstreaker's smile. Tracks the noticed a dust cloud in the distance on the road leading to Autobot City. Scanning the horizon he found the cloud to be from Gears, with Skydive and Swoop overhead

"Say, here comes Gears. Do you want to race down to the bottom to ask him about that Karaoke thing Eject has been telling everyone?" he asked Sunstreaker

Sunstreaker answered by transforming and bombing down the hill at top speed, crunching various sticks and twigs under his super tough tires as he went

"Hey wait!" called the irritated Tracks as he transformed. Gears was in for a very bad night...


	16. Operation: Reconnaissance

Part 3

Dustin awoke from his sleep, cold. It was mid-January and the heater hadn't kicked on yet. He looked at his clock; it was only 9:35. He sighed; he hated waking up because he was cold or the neighbor's dogs were barking or even the fact that the Decepticons were attacking. He looked over at his sleeping fiancé. He watched her lie there. She looked so peaceful. He ran his fingers lightly over her face. He lay back down and continued to watch her. She slowly opened her eyes and noticed that he was watching her. They gazed into each other's eyes. She shifted herself closer to him. He wrapped his arms around her and ran his hands up and down her arms to warm her up. He held her close; he kissed her.

"Hungry?" he asked

She nodded.

"Good. 'Cause I'm going to make you breakfast and you are going to just lay there in bed."

Dustin hopped out of bed walked to the door way, stopped walked back to Sarah kissed her then continued down to the kitchen and started cooking. Sarah just smiled, leaned back and pulled the covers over her head. She lied there thinking about the upcoming wedding. Of course the wedding was in September but she was a girl and she thought of that day since the day she was born, and of course she never thought she'd marry an Autobot. She was excited, but she was also excited about that night. She and Dustin were invited to a banquet. The banquet was in Shortstop's honor and all the things he has done for the world. Her mind shifted from the banquet to the wedding. She just smiled at the thought of her marrying an Autobot. She closed her eyes and fell back asleep.

"So almighty Megatron, what brilliant plan do you have for the Autobots today?" Starscream said with his usual sarcastic tone.

Megatron was still being tormented by the ghost of Starscream. Megatron walked around the Decepticon control room, planning and waiting. He would probably join the Autobots if that would get Starscream out of his system.

"Nothing that concerns you."

"Nothing is right, Megatron, you don't have a plan. You just have those stupid Lyacons here. And all you are going to do is just send one in and get slagged by that putrid Autobot, Shortstop. Forget this I'm going to annoy Zarek and the other headmasters at the Scorpinok base."

Starscream walked through the wall and headed for the other Decepticon base.

"Man he gives me the surges." Rumble said.

"Why won't he just die already?" Megatron said to himself.

"He is dead but his ghost"

Rumble didn't have the chance to finish his sentence without being kicked across the room by his leader.

"Soundwave activate Laserbeak. Send him to spy on Shortstop."

"LASERBEAK EJECT OPERATION RECONNAISSANCE".

The subordinate tape deck released Laserbeak and sent him to Shortstop's house.

Laserbeak arrived at Dustin's house. He landed on a tree branch. The branch almost gave way. Real birds took off out of the tree and a squirrel jumped from that tree to a neighboring tree. A camera slid out from the top of the Decepticon's head. He began recording. He recorded Dustin walking up to the upper level of the house and serving Sarah breakfast. Sarah looked excited. After he set the tray on her lap, he walked to the other side and sat on the bed. He leaned up against the headboard. He watched Dustin pick up his watch communicator and talk into it. He leaned over and kissed Sarah, and then he got up and left. Laserbeak followed him to Autobot City. Laserbeak stayed high with the clouds so not to be seen. Dustin arrived at Autobot City and transformed into Shortstop. Laserbeak secretly followed the headmaster into the base. Shortstop walked down the corridor. He stopped and turned around as if he heard something. He saw nothing then continued on his way. Laserbeak continued to follow. Shortstop entered the war room. Laserbeak flew up to the support beams and perched himself there to spy on the Autobots.

"Shortstop, we picked up some Decepticon activity near your house. It disappeared when we contacted you." Wheeljack reported.

"That's not surprising." Shortstop replied.

"Did you see anything unusual when you left?" Prime asked.

Shortstop tried to think of anything but nothing came to mind. He shook his head.

"You think the Decepticons are up to something?"

"They're always up to something." Prime replied.

Shortstop sighed. The door opened then closed. The three Autobots looked back and saw nothing.

"Wheeljack set Laser Cannon Alpha to Sector 001 and fire." Shortstop ordered.

Wheeljack looked at him.

"Just do it."

Wheeljack pressed a buttons on the console. Outside of Autobot City, the laser cannon moved and fired. The three Autobots looked on the screen to see if they hit Shortstop's target.

"Magnify." Prime ordered.

Wheeljack pressed another button and the image on the screen got bigger. It was Laserbeak. Just then the photon blast hit the Decepticon spy. Laserbeak flew off leaving a trail of smoke all the way back to Decepticon Headquarters.

"How did you know?" Wheeljack asked.

"Well I heard something in the corridor on my way to war room. Then the door opening and closing on its own. I figured either Metroplex was malfunctioning or we had a spy and I picked the latter. And of course I knew the firing coordinates of the front hatch."

"Good job." Prime appraised.


	17. Getting Ready

Laserbeak returned to Decepticon Headquarters.

"LASERBEAK HAS RETURNED, MEGATRON." Soundwave reported.

"Good, playback Laserbeak's findings."

The damaged cassette flew into Soundwave's chest. Soundwave transformed into his cassette player mode and attached himself to a monitor. The monitor's screen popped on and a summary of the images Laserbeak recorded flashed on the screen.

"Nothing of any importance." Megatron said.

"All of it is important." Weapon said. "We need to find his weaknesses and apparently his fiancé is his biggest weakness."

"I could have told you that." A voice said from behind them.

They looked behind them and saw Starscream standing there, leaning up against the wall.

"I could have also told you that those two are going to a function that the flesh creatures call a 'banquet' in honor of the Autobot. You could attack him there. The Autobots will more than likely restrain themselves from fighting with all of the flesh creatures there."

Weapon nodded in agreement. Starscream looked over at Megatron to see if he approved of the idea. Megatron stood there for a moment thinking then nodded. The plan was set. They'll attack Shortstop at the banquet.

Optimus Prime stood at the big screen monitor with his hands behind his back. Shortstop walked into the room.

"Hey Optimus whats up?"

Prime slightly turned towards Shortstop then turned back to the screen.

"I'm waiting for the Decepticons to strike."

"Do you think the Decepticons are going to try and crash the party tonight?"

Prime nodded.

"Figured."

The two warriors stood there watching the screen for a moment.

"The banquet is at 18:30 and its 17:30. I'm going back to my place and get ready. With your permission of course, Prime."

Prime nodded. Shortstop walked out the door and out of Autobot City. He transformed into his vehicle mode and sped off.

He later arrived at his house. A couple of lights were on. He could see Sarah's shadow in the bedroom window. He walked in and up to the bedroom. He pulled off his body armor lied it on the floor. Sarah walked out of the bathroom wearing only a towel.

"Damn you look hot."

Sarah blushed. Dustin walked over to her, held her chin and kissed her.

"I'm going to get ready."

"Ok Hun."

He pulled off his shirt and walked into the bathroom. Sarah looked at him and couldn't stop. She smiled and continued to get ready.


	18. Holocaust

"Who are you sending now?" Galvatron asked.

"Holocaust." Replied the Lyacon leader.

He pressed a button on his right forearm.

"Holocaust report to me at once."

Moments later a big ogre looking Decepticon walked in.

"What is your bidding, my master?"

"Boy is somebody is whipped." Rumble said.

Holocaust walked over and kicked the Decepticon cassette across the room. Rumble got up and stumbled around abit.

"Man I can't win today."

Frenzy grabbed hold of his brother and kept him from falling over.

"It is your turn now." Weapon said.

Holocaust nodded.

"Decepticons, take to the air." Megatron ordered.

The docking tower rose out of the water and the Decepticons left to battle the Autobots.

The Autobots arrived at the banquet. Shortstop hadn't arrived yet.

"Where is Shortstop?" Asked Ironhide.

Just then Shortstop pulled in.

"Oh there he is. Took him long enough." Bluestreak said.

"Sorry we're late. We got a little preoccupied." Dustin said.

Dustin was wearing a blue button up shirt, with black pants and a black tie. Sarah was wearing a red button up shirt, with a black mini skirt and black knee high boots. She wore her hair down for the event. They all entered the building. The building was big, three rows of tables running parallel to each other. The Autobots lined up along side of the walls. A table and a podium were set on the stage. Dustin and Sarah sat at the head table next to the podium. Everybody was seated and a middle aged guy walked up to the podium to begin his speech.

"Thanks for coming." The man started to say.

"Don't mind if we do." Megatron said as he destroyed the farthest wall away from the podium.

"_Damn can't we have one good moment without them messin' it up for us?"_ Shortstop thought to himself.

"Autobots protect the humans." Prime ordered.

People scattered as they tried to get away from the Decepticons. Dustin grabbed Sarah by the hand and guided her out of harms way. They got to Dustin's car. He opened the trunk to put on his exosuit.

"Man, I feel like batman."

Sarah giggled. Dustin finished putting on his exosuit. He kissed her then put on his helmet. He jumped into the air and connected with the body.

"Alright time to go to work."

He walked around to the other side of the building. Dirge ambushed him. Shortstop struggled with Dirge on his back. He reached behind him grabbed Dirge by the vents of his jet part of his body and threw him into a wall. The Autobots fired their weapons at the Decepticons who were doing the same. Optimus was facing off against Megatron. Prime threw a right hook, Megatron dodged it. Prime spun around and hit Megatron across the face with his forearm. The Decepticon leader stumbled. Just then a gust of wind came up overwhelming the warriors. They all covered they're optics. Then a huge Decepticon landed in the middle of the fighting. He was much taller than Shortstop. Two vents came up to the side of his head. Rockets lined up the side of him. He didn't walk normally; when he walked he looked like he was trying to march.

"I've got him. Everybody stand back." Shortstop said arrogantly.

He took off running at him and jumped in the air. He smacked into the chest of him and slowly slid off. Shortstop stumbled around.

"Man that didn't go as well as planned."

Holocaust lifted his hands above his head, clasped both hands together and brought them down on top of Shortstop. The Headmaster fell to the ground. Holocaust walked to Shortstop. Shortstop was on the ground on his hands and knees. Then he looked back and kicked Holocaust in the knee. He grabbed the foot and picked up the headmaster, swung him around and threw him into a building.

"Oh I like him." Megatron said.

Shortstop transformed and sped towards the Lyacon. At the last moment he transformed, kept both feet together and kicked Holocaust in the face. The Lyacon finally stumbled. Shortstop aimed his arm lasers at him and fired. Holocaust kept stumbling back. Then he pulled out his duel pistols and continued to fire. Holocaust fired rockets at the Autobot. At the last moment, Shortstop pulled out his spoiler and used as a shield and repelled the rockets. Then he used the spoiler as a boomerang and threw it. The boomerang flew through the air and right through Lyacon's arm. The arm fell to the ground. Holocaust looked at the disconnected limb. Then the boomerang came back and sliced through the other arm. Holocaust looked at the other fallen arm. Then looked at his attacker. Who jumped into the air and used the spoiler as a sword and sliced right down the middle of Holocaust. The Lyacon split into to pieces and fell to the ground. Sparks flew out of the ruptured circuits. Shortstop started to walk away.

"Some warrior." Megatron said.

"Just wait." Weapon said holding a hand up.

Shortstop heard something. He turned around to see the pieces connecting together.

"Oh damn it." Shortstop sighed.

The body was almost complete. While it was coming together it was transforming. It transformed into a self-standing rocket launcher. It aimed itself at Shortstop and fired. The rocket nailed him in the chest. The Autobot went flying through the air. He fired another rocket. Shortstop blocked it with his forearm. The rocket went flying into the air and then started to descend. The rocket came back down and hit Holocaust. Holocaust transformed back into his robot mode. Shortstop charged at him, firing with his arm lasers. He then transformed into his vehicle mode and ran into Holocaust. The Lyacon grabbed a hold of the car and threw it on its top. Shortstop transformed back into robot mode to find that Holocaust had gotten on top and put his hands around his neck.

"Die Autobot. It's a pity you Autobots die so easily or I might have a sense of satisfaction now."

While on the ground, Shortstop was trying everything he could to get the big oaf off of him. Then he saw her. Sarah came into view.

"_I promised her I'd always be there for her. I promised her that we would get married and I'm not going to break that promise." _ He thought to himself.

Shortstop threw a right hook that connected with Holocaust's jaw. The impact jarred the Lyacon and he stumbled off of him. Shortstop got up. He pulled out his spoiler again. He looked at it then stared down Holocaust, who began to run at him. He cocked his arm back, then threw it forward and let go of the boomerang. The boomerang sliced through the torso of Holocaust. The two pieces fell to the ground.

"Not again." Shortstop said as he aimed his arm laser at the head of his attacker and fired. The head exploded. Just to be sure the body still wouldn't come back together he fired at the remaining parts, they too exploded. Nothing was left of the Lyacon.

He turned to the Decepticons and held up his middle, ring and pinkie fingers.

"That's three Lyacons you sent after me and that's three Lyacons I sent to the scrap heap."

Infuriated Megatron flew off. The other Decepticons followed their leader. The other Autobots engulfed their victorious companion. Sarah stood to the side so the joyful Autobots wouldn't step her on. Shortstop transformed back into vehicle mode and Dustin came over and hugged Sarah still wearing his exosuit.

"You gave me the strength to defeat him."

"I know, somehow I sensed what you were feeling."

She kissed him then hugged him again.

"So much for the awards banquet." She said.

"Eh, I never liked banquets that much anyway."

"Alright Autobots, lets roll for home." Prime said as he transformed into his semi form and rolled out.


	19. Sweet Dreams are Made of These

It was a bright and sunny day at Autobot City. Nothing unusual had happened yet with the war going on. Wheeljack had a bad feeling about something was going to happen. He told Ratchet and Perceptor about it but they didn't believe him. They thought he was all worked up for nothing. Ratchet had been reassigned to Moon Base One a couple of weeks ago. Ratchet had been assigned, along with Brawn, Prowl and Ironhide, to come to Earth to pick up Energon cubes. Ratchet had called up Wheeljack to tell him that he was coming back. Wheeljack had been going on and on about something bad was going to happen.

"Oh Wheeljack your circuits are all rambled. Go have Perceptor take a look at you." Ratchet said.

"Nothing is wrong with me. I don't know what it is. I just have this feeling."

"Wheeljack nothing bad is going to happen. We have early warning systems that would tell us if the Decepticons were going to attack."

"I'm telling you I'm right on this one." Wheeljack said with his extentions flashing bright blue.

"And I'm telling you that you're full of it." Ratchet replied.

"Yeah, come on" Wheeljack" Prowl put in. "There won't be an attack."

"Listen." Ratchet was cut off by an explosion.

"DECEPTICONS." Wheeljack heard Brawn say in the background.

Wheeljack could see what was going on. He saw Brawn get hit, then Prowl fell. Then Ironhide and Ratchet both started firing but both fell by Decepticon fire. Wheeljack quickly ran to Ultra Magnus.

"Magnus signal the alarm. The shuttle has been attacked by Decepticons. Brawn, Prowl, Ratchet, Ironhide are all dead."

"Ok, calm down, you say the Decepticons attacked the shuttle?"

Wheeljack nodded.

"Alright I'll have Springer and Arcee transform Autobot City and I'll get Blaster to radio Prime for reinforcements. You go alert the others. Blurr and I will help."

Wheeljack nodded again. He transformed and sped outside to tell the others of the upcoming attack, but it was too late. He could see Hot Rod already firing on the shuttle. Then part of the shuttle exploded and Decepticons swarmed out of the hole in the side of the shuttle like a swarm of bees abandoning their nest. They attacked full force. He and Windcharger were fighting along side each other when Windcharger took a hit in the chest. He could see his eyes flicker out of existence. He stopped firing to aid his injured friend but it was too late. Then he heard somebody land beside him. He turned around. It was Megatron. All he saw was the purple light of his arm cannon discharging.

Wheeljack woke up. He looked around his quarters. He was a little disoriented. He shifted over and sat on the side of his restoration chamber.

"_It was all a dream." _ He thought. _"But wait a minute, we don't dream."_

He got up and walked out of his quarters and down the hall. He walked into the rec room to get a cup of oil. He still couldn't get the dream out of his head. It was so real.

"_Wait a minute, it was real. It really happened that way. Why would I dream of that dark day?" _ He thought.

He tapped on his fore arm to activate his comm. link.

"Optimus Prime, this is Wheeljack."

"Go ahead Wheeljack."

"Are you busy? I need to talk to you.


	20. Disturbing Dream from the Decepticons

In Decepticon Headquarters, the evil Transformers were working on something that could usually spell doom for the Autobots.

"Ha, it works." Neuros said.

"Good I'd expect it to work." Megatron said.

"I have the dream wave focused on Autobot Wheeljack at the moment. Apparently he was dreaming about his death at Autobot City."

"Now focus the wave on Shortstop." The maniacal leader ordered.

The Lyacon did as he was told. He pressed a few buttons. He skimmed through images of Autobots.

"No not Jazz, not Omega Supreme, not Trailbreaker. There we go, Shortstop."

The Dream wave machine was activated and aimed at the Autobot Headmaster: Shortstop.

Shortstop stood against Weapon, in the final battle of the Lyacons. Shortstop had destroyed Weapon's sniper rifle. They were going to finish it face to face.

"One shall stand, one shall fall." Shortstop said.

"That is how it will end, my worthy adversary." Weapon replied.

Weapon leapt at Shortstop, tackling him. Shortstop wrestled with Weapon, finally picking him up and throwing him against a tree. Weapon pulled a chunk out of the tree. The chunk was long with a pointed tip next to him. He threw it at Shortstop. The object struck Shortstop's side. It didn't really faze him. Weapon fired his pistol at the Autobot. Shortstop dodged it, ran over and punched Weapon in the face knocking him back and causing him to lose his pistol. Shortstop stepped back and pulled the piece of steel out of his side. Weapon's forearm produced an energy beam. He ran over and sliced into Shortstop's already open wound. Shortstop stumbled back covering his wound, like a mother protecting its young. He stepped back a few more feet to give him some room from his attacker. Weapon ran and jumped into the air; he came down to deliver a deadly strike with his energy beam but was uppercut by Shortstop. Weapon fell onto his back. Shortstop ran up to attack, Weapon attempted to trip him but Shortstop jumped into the air. When he landed, he was hit in the chest by both of Weapon's feet. Shortstop fell on his back but quickly got up. Weapon had also gotten up. The two Transformers grabbed each other. Weapon was struggling to gain some sort of advantage, while Shortstop held him back.

"I'll rip out your optics." Weapon said infuriated that he hadn't defeated him yet.

Shortstop pushed Weapon's arms aside, picked him up by his head and threw him aside. Weapon landed on his stomach. Shortstop aimed his arm lasers at the defeated Lyacon leader. Weapon got to his hands and knees and noticed his lost pistol was behind a fallen tree.

"No more Shortstop, grant me mercy I beg of you?" he pleaded as he slowly crawled towards his weapon.

"You, who are without mercy, now plead for it. I thought you were made of sterner stuff." Shortstop said not noticing what Weapon was going after.

Just then Weapon dove for the Weapon and fired. Shortstop dove out of the way and avoided the photon charge. The charge hit the side of a wall and caused it to collapse. A woman screamed. Shortstop knew that scream. It was Sarah. He quickly rolled over to see the wall fall on her.

Dustin's eyes flashed opened. He was breathing heavily. He was drenched in cold sweat. He sat up and looked over at Sarah who was sound asleep.

"_Thank Primus." _ He thought. _"It was only a dream."_

Sarah slowly woke up. She rolled over to see her fiancé was awake.

"Honey whats wrong?"

"I had a horrible nightmare."

"That was some nightmare, you're drenched in sweat." She said as she ran two fingers down the side of his left arm.

"I know I sound like a little kid when I say that but the dream seemed almost real."

"What was the dream about?"

"Well.I was fighting Weapon. It was a fierce battle and I had finally gotten the upper hand. Well I was aiming my arm lasers at him when he dove for his pistol. He fired and I dodged it."

"And?"

"And he hit the support beam of a wall at Autobot City causing it to collapse. Then a woman screamed. That woman turned out to be you. I saw the wall fall on you. I tried to save you but I wasn't quick enough. The dream was so real. I could feel pain, emotion, the whole nine yards."

Dustin pulled his legs up to his chest and wrapped his arms around them. Sarah shifted over closer and held Dustin in her arms.


	21. Going Back

"So you had a dream of the day at Autobot City when the Decepticons attacked?" Prime asked.

Wheeljack nodded.

"It's puzzling. Why all of a sudden would you be dreaming?" Prime wondered.

The door opened. Ironhide, Gold Bug, Cliffjumper and Springer all walked in. Ironhide attempted to speak. Prime just held up a hand.

"Let me guess, you all were dreaming?"

The Autobots looked at each other and nodded.

"Hmm. Since its not just Wheeljack, so that rules out the possibility of something wrong with him, so it has to be the Decepticons."

In Decepticon Headquarters, Neuros was having fun with his new invention.

"All of the Autobots are confused."

"Excellent." Megatron said.

"Yes, indeed." Weapon said. "What about Shortstop?"

"He dreamt of his 'flesh bag mate' dying from a collapsing wall caused by you."

Megatron smiled at the thought of Shortstop in pain and agony. He hated the new headmaster ever since he came into the picture in 2007. It was around the same time that Megatron was resurrected. In fact it was in the same day. Just then the ghost of Starscream walked into the room. Megatron frowned. His former Lieutenant of the Decepticon Air Fleet annoyed him even more so now than when he was functioning. Starscream had died the first time after he had dumped Megatron's barely functioning body out of the side hatch of Astrotrain. He, Thundercracker, Skywarp, Kickback, Shrapnel, and Bombshell, while floating in space, met up with the planet destroyer Unicron. Unicron had given them new bodies. He turned Megatron into Galvatron, Skywarp into Cyclonus, Thundercracker into Scourge and the three Insecticons into the three Sweeps. Starscream took command of the Decepticons for a matter of astroseconds when Galvatron came barging in. Galvatron then destroyed Starscream. Then Starscream's ghost made a deal with the head of Unicron to give him his old body back. Unicron held up his end of the bargain but just like Starscream, he didn't hold up his end. He was supposed to attach Unicron's head to Cybertron so that he could gain a body. Rodimus Prime, Ultra Magnus, Springer and Kup set up Energon explosives next to Unicron and detonated them. The explosion sent Starscream hurtling into space. In 2007 Dr. Archevil, who had a previous encounter with Megatron in 1984, found the almost lifeless body of Starscream. With orders from Galvatron, Archevil was sent to find Unicron's left leg, which held the clones of Megatron, Skywarp, Thundercracker and the three Insecticons. The clones were reactivated and their memories were restored. Starscream had a chip installed into his head by Megatron and Galvatron, so that he couldn't take any hostile action towards the two leaders. Megatron killed Rodimus Prime and almost killed Optimus Prime but Shortstop had interfered and severely wounded Megatron. Starscream convinced Archevil to remove the chip. He later tried to terminate Megatron while he was being repaired, but Megatron was reenergized enough to terminate Starscream for the second time.

"Ah, Megatron and Galvatron. What a pleasure it is to see you again." Starscream said sarcastically with his somewhat high-pitched voice.

"Spare me your pomposity." Megatron said.

Galvatron narrowed his eyes at the ghost.

"You're fortunate that you're dead already, otherwise I would have terminated you just now." Galvatron said.

"Tisk, tisk. You always want to terminate someone." Starscream said.

"And you always want to gain power at the cost of ours." Megatron shot back.

Starscream stormed off at the fact he couldn't think of a comeback. The two leaders turned back to Weapon, who was getting ready to send out his next warrior to take on Shortstop.

"This time I believe we have him." Weapon said.

Galvatron and Megatron both sighed.

"Oh, what is it this time?" Galvatron asked.

"Well, Shortstop's human component Dustin was born a year before you and the Autobots came to Earth. Well I'm sending Neuros back to 1982, a year before Dustin was born and he's going to kill Dustin's parents."

Galvatron and Megatron both nodded in agreement.

"Neuros get ready for time travel." Weapon ordered.

Secretly Counterpunch left to report to Optimus Prime.


	22. A Fight in the Past

Meanwhile, at Autobot City, Shortstop and Kup were walking along the outer perimeter talking about history.

"The battle of Rigulan 4 was a gruesome battle. We were outnumbered by 3 Rigulan Metal Mongers." Kup said.

Outnumbered by 3 of them? How many of were in your platoon?"

"700."

"700? There were 700 of you and only 3 of them. Ah come on, Kup."

"You know Hot Rod said the same thing when we were stranded on Nebulon. The Decepticons were after us because we had the key to the plasma energy chamber."

"Yeah I know that story. That's when Spike created the Headmasters and Targetmasters. It's also the place were Fortress Maximus was created."

"Very good, lad. You keep up with your history."

"Well, I was a history major in college."

Just then Prime's voice came over the intercom.

"Shortstop, report to me at once."

Shortstop and Kup headed for the war room. The two Autobots entered and Prime was standing at the big screen monitor.

"What are the Decepticons up to?" Shortstop asked.

"Well they have invented a dream wave machine that causes us to dream. And Teletran picked up a temporal vortex."

"Time Travel?"

Prime nodded.

"Where did they go? Er I mean when?"

"Punch reported Neuros went back to 1982 to take out your parents."

"But why haven't I disappeared yet?"

"I don't have the answers for all your questions but I assume that he hadn't found you yet."

"Of course. I wasn't born in Athens. I was born in Washington, Pennsylvania. So I can see why I haven't disappeared yet."

"I need to go back in time and take him out."

"But we don't have any time travel equipment here, lad."

"We don't, but the Decepticons do."

"What do you think were going to do, walk in and use their time machine?"

"Yep."

Kup's mouth dropped.

"Autobots, assemble at once. We're going after the Decepticons." Prime ordered.

The other Autobots walked into the room.

"We're going to Decepticon Headquarters. Shortstop is going to go back in time to stop Neuros. We need to do everything in our power to protect the time machine so that Shortstop can get back to our time." Prime explained

The Autobots arrived at the shoreline. They stood at the edge of the cliff. Jazz walked closer to the edge.

"Into the sea, must be daring. Last one in is a rusty herring."

He dove into the water. Then the rest followed. They swam up to the ship. Cliffjumper pulled out his laser cutter and cut through the ships hull. They each pulled themselves up into the vacant room.

"Be cautious, Autobots." Prime warned

They crept around the halls like ghosts. Pounce and Wingspan walked by without noticing the Autobots hanging from the ceiling. Brainstorm and Hard Head jumped onto the two Decepticons. They drug their unconscious bodies into a room and left them bound. They found themselves only feet away from the main control room. Runabout and Runamuck were guarding it. Prime pointed to Fastlane and Cloudraker then pointed to the two guards. The Autobot twins snuck up to the Decepticon guards and took them out. Then they stormed into the control room. It took the Decepticons by surprise. They scattered, as did the Autobots. Jazz and Shortstop snuck to the time machine.

"Lets see here. Time controls set to 1982 and location: Washington, PA. Controls are set." Shortstop said.

"Good luck m'man." Jazz said.

Shortstop nodded. Jazz pressed a few buttons and activated the machine. Shortstop watched the battle slow down then freeze. He saw everybody frozen in time. Megatron and Galvatron were being held up by their necks by Prime. Jazz was still at the controls. The Technobots had merged together to form Computron and the Terrorcons had formed Abominus and were in combat with each other. Then time started to move backwards. He could see both Autobots and Decepticons move backwards. Slowly at first then started to speed up, then there was a flash of light. All of a sudden Shortstop was standing in the middle of the road in Washington. He was on the outskirts of the city.

"_I better transform so not to cause any panic." _He thought.

"Computer, what is today's date?"

"June 4th 1982"

He looked at his watch. It was 1:15 in the afternoon. He turned around and headed for the city.

"My mom is probably in school right now." He said to himself.

He drove to Trinity High School. He was on the Jefferson Avenue, one of the main streets in Washington, when he saw red and blue lights behind him. He pulled over to the side of the road.

"Oh damn it. I'm not in this time 10 minutes and I'm already in trouble."

The officer got out of the car and walked up to car. The officer was in his mid 20's, brown hair, and mustache, looked like he had a few too many donuts.

"Can I see your license and registration?"

Dustin pulled out his license and registration and handed it over. The officer looked at it with disbelief.

"I pulled you over for one reason now I have another."

"What's the problem?"

"Well first of all there are no license plates on your car and your registration says you own a 2007 Ford GT. That's over twenty years from now."

"So it is."

"Step out of the car, sir"

Dustin got out of the car and stood there waiting to see what the officer would do next.

"I'm going to have to take you in. Now put your hands above your head."

Dustin sighed.

"_I'm going to hate myself for this." _He thought

"Oh how careless of your wife to let you go out like that"

"What?"

"Your uniform is quite untidy; here let me get that for you."

Dustin reached over to the officer's shoulder and then grabbed it and pinched. The officer went down. Dustin caught him before he hit the ground. He gently laid the officer on the ground. He grabbed his license and registration and jumped in his car and sped off.

"_Gotta thank Leonard Nimoy for teaching me the 'Vulcan Nerve Pinch'" _He thought.

He drove to Trinity High School. He pulled into the parking lot and sat there and waited for school to let out. He waited for an hour before students finally started to emerge from the building. Then he saw her. It was his mom. He got out, still wearing his exosuit minus the helmet. He ran up to her. Her hair was short and curly, she looked very athletic. Now he knew where he gets it from.

"Mom, er...I mean Lori. You're in danger. A giant robot from the future is coming back in time to kill you."

She had a look of disbelief on her face. One of her friends came up to her.

"Ooo who's your friend, Lori? He's kinda cute."

"He's not my friend. I don't even know him. He says a robot from the future is coming back in time to kill me."

"_Man this really sounds like the movie: The Terminator." _ He thought to himself.

They all laughed at the headmaster.

"And who is your tailor. That outfit is awful." Her friend said.

Dustin just looked at her. He wanted to hit her. Dustin stood there trying to think of something else to say that would convince her. Then he got it. He would tell her everything about her. She started to walk away.

"Hey wait up. I know that you are Lori Zofchak, first daughter of Shirley and Dennis Zofchak. You have a younger sister named Cathy and a younger brother named Stephen. You are currently dating Chris Hammett."

She stopped and turned to him.

"So what everybody knows that."

He leaned up to her and whispered in her ear.

"I know that you're a month pregnant."

Her eyes got really big.

"How do you know all of that? Are you some sort of stalker?"

Dustin shook his head.

"You will have a kid on February 14th 1983. And the only reason I know this is that I'm your son."

Lori looked astonished but yet not surprised.

"Somehow I knew you were close but I couldn't put my finger on it."

"Look, in 2007 I will become affiliated with a group known as the Autobots. They wage their battle against the evil Decepticons. Their war has been going on for millions of years. They came to earth millions of years ago. Their ship crash-landed and they currently lay dormant. They will wake up and save the human race from the Decepticons. You won't know that they're around you until you see them transform. They disguise themselves as everyday vehicles or items. And if you notice my car isn't exactly of this time."

She looked at the car and nodded in agreement. Just then an explosion rocked the ground. Dustin looked to the sky to see Neuros firing at the humans. People were scattering. Running scared.

"There he is. Now get to someplace safe. I'll take care of him." Dustin said.

He ran over to his car. He grabbed his helmet and put it on. He jumped into the air and transformed. The head and body connected and now he was Shortstop. He aimed his arm laser at the Lyacon and fired. He hit him and sent him flying towards the ground. He landed in a tree.

"Argh, Autobot scrap." He muttered.

Lori and her friend looked on in astonishment as her future son took on the evil robot. Shortstop kept firing at him. Neuros jumped into the air to avoid being hit. He transformed into his hovercraft mode and sped towards the Autobot. He nearly hit him, but was thwarted off course by a street curb. Shortstop laughed at him. Neuros stopped a couple feet from Shortstop. The Autobot could see Neuros' arm even though he was transformed. Finally the Lyacon transformed back into his robot mode. He pulled out a device. Shortstop couldn't tell what it was but he knew it meant trouble. He aimed the device at him and pressed a button. The device sent out a sonic boom, which sent Shortstop flying through the air. He went crashing through a building. Neuros turned to see that his target was only feet away. He aimed his gun at the two cowering humans. He was about to pull the trigger when a boomerang came flying through the air cutting off his arm. The arm fell to the ground. Neuros looked in the direction from which it came. He saw Shortstop standing there holding the boomerang over his head. Neuros attempted to bend down to pick up his other gun but Shortstop threw his boomerang again cutting off his other hand.

"Now didn't you learn from your first mistake?"

Neuros' optics narrowed. Then his chest plate opened up and a barrage of missiles shot out. Shortstop dove around, jumped in the air, transformed and drove around just to avoid getting hit. He was finally hit in the shoulder. The same shoulder that was dug into by Savage.

"Man, what is it with you guys and this shoulder?"

Shortstop held his shoulder. Suddenly Twin barrels came out of the side of Neuros' head. He fired. Shortstop dodged the lasers. Finally he pulled out his own duel pistols and fired. He shot up Neuros so much that he was beginning to fall apart. "I wonder who made you. I mean come on I've seen Lego houses built stronger than you."

Neuros fired another shot from his head laser. Shortstop easily avoided it. He pulled out his spoiler once again. He held the middle with his left hand, and then his right hand came back to the side of his face.

"_That looks like a bow and arrow." _ Neuros thought. _"It is a bow and arrow."_

Shortstop let go of the invisible string and sent the energon arrow right through the head of the Lyacon. Neuros fell to the ground and disappeared.

"Damn, that was actually quite simple."

He transformed back into his exosuit form. He walked over to Lori and her friend who was slightly shaking.

"Well, there you go. I saved your life so that mine will continue to exist."

"Thank you."

Dustin nodded.

"I need to get going. I'll see you in nine months."

Lori and her friend waved to her son, the Autobot.

Dustin transformed back into Shortstop. Then he noticed time began to speed up, then there was a flash of light and he was back in Decepticon Headquarters. Jazz was still at the controls; Prime still had a hold of Megatron and Galvatron. He smashed their heads together. Computron punched Abominus in the face.

"Hey man, what happened? You were only gone a moment." Jazz asked

"I'm still here."

"Yeah you are now let's get out of here."

Optimus saw that Shortstop had returned.

"Autobots lets roll out of here."

They all started to leave the room.

"Oh and one more thing." Wheeljack said as he fired a rocket from his shoulder cannon at the dream wave machine.

The explosion knocked a few Decepticons off their feet. The Autobots ran back to the room from which they came, firing at the opposing resistance. They all jumped into the hole in the floor and swam back to shore. Megaton was infuriated that they got away. Even more so now that Shortstop had beaten another Lyacon.

The Autobots returned to their base. They were all interested about Shortstop's time adventure.

"So what was it like to see your mom before she was your mom?" Tailgate asked.

"It was an interesting experience."

"This reminds me of the time" Kup spoke up to tell the Autobots about another war story.

The Autobots, with the exception of Shortstop, who loved history, were in for a long night.


	23. What happened?

Sarah walked into the Autobot rec room. She was supposed to meet Arcee, Moonracer and Chromia there. She looked around the gigantic room. She saw Jazz, Hound, and Inferno at one table. Rollbar, Searchlight, Chase and Freeway at another. Then she saw the female Autobots. She walked up to the table and Chromia picked her up and set her on the table. Sarah sat down in the middle of the table, Indian style. She liked hanging out with the female Autobots, especially Chromia. She could relate to her better than the others because she was with Ironhide. Yes, Eleta One was with Optimus Prime but she wasn't down to Earth or down to Cybertron or how ever you want to put it, as Chromia was.

"So, when's the wedding?" Chromia asked.

"Dustin and I decided it would be September 29th."

"Aren't you scared that Dustin might not comeback?" Moonracer asked.

Sarah shook her head.

"I was at first, well I'm still scared, but I've accepted the fact. I mean it's just like if he were a police officer or a firefighter. Those are pretty high risk jobs and I'd be scared if he were one of them as well."Just then Carly walked in. She walked over to the table and was lifted up on to it. She sat next to Sarah. Carly was Spike's wife. She and Spike met back in 1985 when the Autobots were out testing Wheeljack's latest invention, the immobilizer. She had snuck up close to the Autobots to watch when she was discovered by Ironhide. She had helped the Autobots on numerous occasions. When the Autobots were close to deactivation due to the fact that they were low on Cybertronium, they went to Cybertron to find the missing Dinobots and to get a shipment of Cybertronium. They were married in 1993 and they had a son named Daniel. Spike was stationed on Moon Base Two in 2005, when Unicron showed up and devoured Moon Base One, that had Jazz and Cliffjumper occupying it then it destroyed Moon Base Two. Spike, Bumblebee, Jazz and Cliffjumper were about to be dropped in a vat filled with acid inside of Unicron, but they were rescued by Daniel. Daniel was almost killed in a Decepticon attack. Once he got back to Earth he was healed and doesn't have to rely on machines.

Just then Wheeljack, Hoist, Ratchet and First Aid walked into the room. They each got themselves a cup of oil and sat down. They weren't in there two minutes when Prime's voice came over the intercom.

"Medical team, report to the medical bay and prepare to receive injured."

The four medics got up and ran out of the room.

"Hey, wasn't Shortstop on the away mission?" Moonracer asked.

Sarah's stomach turned.

"Take me to the medical bay."

Arcee picked her up and took her to the medical bay. They walked into the bay and saw the four medics that had just ran out of the rec room getting ready for the injured Autobots. Just then Mirage and Ironhide held the door open for Skyfire who was carrying Shortstop in his arms. Sideswipe, Prowl and Powerglide followed. Skyfire set Shortstop on a table. Shortstop was badly injured, the other Autobots were injured but not as badly. Sarah gasped.

"What happened out there?" Ratchet asked.

"We were ambushed." Skyfire replied.

"What happened to Dustin?" Sarah asked while she choked back tears.

"It happened like this kid" Powerglide began to say.


	24. Flashback

The Autobots were on patrol in town, near East State Street. Then they were bombarded by Decepticon jets. The jets fired at the Autobots. Then more Decepticons arrived. Skyfire and Powerglide took to the while Shortstop and the others fought on the ground. Powerglide flew overhead of Thrust and Dirge. He dropped two bombs on top of the two enemy jets. They fell out of the air. Shortstop was surrounded by Skywarp, Thundercracker and Ramjet. Ramjet charged. Shortstop punched him then kicked him across the face. Skywarp charged, but Shortstop just picked him up and threw him into Thundercracker.

"Too bad there are only three of you. Battling less than four Decepticons at a time is boring."

"I hope I don't bore you." A voice said behind him.

Shortstop turned around to find the female Decepticon known as Noxica.

She was about as tall as Shortstop, very slender and feminine looking. She was pink in some areas and black in others. There was something about her that reminded Shortstop of Starscream. She had wings on her back that folded slightly back. Her face was grey with red eyes.

"So you're the fifth I'm supposed to beat?"

"Don't get cocky. I might surprise you."

"I doubt it." Shortstop said as he narrowed his eyes.

They squared off. They ran at each other. He threw a punch but she grabbed him and drove her knee into his back. He swung around to backhand her but she just grabbed his arm and threw him aside. He fired his arm lasers at her. She was hit in the chest and fell to the ground. Then she jumped up with her duel rifles and fired repeatedly at the headmaster. He fell. He lied there while she walked over to him. He jumped up and kicked her across the face. She retaliated with a punch to the chest. He came back with a flying roundhouse kick. The kick connected with her face and she was flipped onto her back. He attempted to smash her face in with his foot but she grabbed it and threw him into a tree. She stood up and cracked him across the face with the butt-end of her rifle. She hit him repeatedly until he fell. While he was falling, she flipped her rifle around and fired at him. He was hit continually.

Inside of the head of Shortstop the control board exploded, sparks went flying. Then oil started spewing out.

"Damn, oil leak." He shouted.

Then the oil caught fire. Dustin was covered in oil. He started to catch. Finally the emergency sprinklers kicked in and put out the fire. Shortstop laid there unconscious. He passed out from the pain.

"Hmph, never send a man to do a woman's job." Noxica snorted.

"Decepticons return to base. We have won."

The Decepticons left in victory. Skyfire and Powerglide landed and ran over to Shortstop. The Autobots loaded him into Skyfire and they all headed back to Autobot City with their tailpipes tucked.

"And that's how it happened." Powerglide concluded.

Wheeljack manually disengaged the head. The head automatically transformed into exosuit form. Wheeljack set Dustin on a lower table so Carly could take a look at him. She came over and took off his helmet. His face was black, covered in oil. Sarah helped Carly take off his exosuit. Carly took a pair of scissors and cut open his shirt. His torso was badly burned. She listened for a heartbeat and found it. She covered him in some kind of burn spray. Wheeljack and Hoist worked on the body, While Ratchet and First Aid worked on the other Autobots. The body hadn't transformed back into the car when the head disengaged. It was so badly damaged that the transforming mechanism wouldn't activate.

"I've done all I can. He'll be alright. He's in a lot of pain but he just needs to heal."

Sarah nodded as she held Dustin's head in her arms and she cried.

"_Why did you have to go on that away mission? You told me that everything would be alright and that nothing would ever happen to you. Liar." She thought._


	25. Starscream's Sister

"We are victorious." Galvatron said.

The Decepticons raised their hands in victory. They cheered at their apparent success.

"Excellent job, Noxica." Megaton said.

Noxica nodded.

"Well it's about time." Starscream said while walking in.

The other Decepticon's smiles quickly turned to frowns.

"Good job, sis."

Everybody's jaw dropped in surprise.

"What? You didn't know that Noxica is my sister?"

Nobody said anything. Even Megatron and Galvatron were speechless.

"So that would make Sunstorm your brother as well?" Rumble asked.

Noxica nodded.

"Man, everybody has a relative here. Skywarp's brother is Shadow Seeker, and Thundercracker's brother is Tornadic." Frenzy said.

Noxica pointed at Megatron and Galvatron.

"I have a personal vendetta against you two."

The two leaders looked confused.

"After the Lyacons help you destroy the Autobots, I will come after the both of you. I am also here to avenge my brother's death."

Starscream stood there grinning. He ran a finger underneath of his optic acting like he was wiping a tear from his optic.

"Oh, my little sister is growing up so fast. Kinda brings a tear to your optic."

Galvatron started towards Noxica.

"Why you traitorous dogbot."

Megaton put his arm in front of him.

"No, now is not the time for this. We have to plan another attack to finish off the other Autobots."


	26. Sarah the Autobot Headmaster

Inside of Autobot City, Prime stood by the medical bay's window. He saw that Sarah was still in there sitting next to Dustin holding his hand. Ironhide came up next to him.

"She still in there, Prime?"

"Affirmative. She has been in there for hours."

The two Autobots watched Sarah sit there next to her injured fiancé.

"Come on Prime. Let's go see what the Decepticons are up to."

Sarah sat there waiting for Dustin to wake up and she wouldn't leave until he did. She sat there thinking of all the good times they had together, and the bad. She remembered when they first met. She worked at Nelson Dining Hall, while Dustin was a manager there, but they didn't just meet while working together. They were introduced by two mutual friends: Liz Dowler and Katie Kreimer. After that they sort of hung out when they got the chance. She was always attracted to him, but she could never get the nerve to ask. She was working when a group of Sharkticons came crashing in. One of them came after her and injured her. It was about to kill her when Dustin intervened. He later took her to Autobot City and patched up her wounds. He never did reveal on who he was. After he had fixed her wounds the Decepticons attacked Autobot City. With the majority of the Autobots on Cybertron, reviving the Autobots that had died in the great battle of 2005, they were outnumbered. One Decepticon had come in and almost killed her if it hadn't been for Shortstop. He ordered Blaster to take her to safety. He later battled the Decepticons near her house and was badly injured. He had found her house and needed medical attention. He finally revealed who he was. After that they began to hang out together. Then finally he asked her to marry him last August. It was now April and the wedding was scheduled in five months. Then his eyes opened.

"Uhhh." He moaned.

"You're awake oh my god you're awake."

She started kissing him repeatedly. He was a little surprised by this but wasn't complaining.

"You had me so scared. I thought you were going to die. And I thought the worst when I saw Skyfire carrying you in."

"Its ok, I'm a little banged up and busted but I'm going to be fine. Then once I'm back on my feet I'm going after Noxica."

"No you're not. Not in your condition"

"I have to its my" he tried to say but was cut off.

"I'm going after Noxica."

"What? No. You can't. You haven't been trained with the Autobots. It's too dangerous."

"Did you train when you first became an Autobot?"

"Not immediately. No."

"Well then. I'm going after her and there's nothing you can do to stop me."

"No probably not. But at least ask Prime first."

"Alright, I'll ask Prime." She sighed

Sarah walked out of the room and into the war room. Prime was standing at the control board with Ironhide, Prowl and Jazz. She walked up and stood alongside the foot of the great Autobot leader.

"Optimus Prime, can I ask you something?"

"Sure Sarah, what is it?"

"I want to go after Noxica."

"It's too dangerous."

"But, Prime…!"

Optimus put up a hand.

"I understand." She said disappointed.

She walked back to the medical bay to watch Dustin. She sat there next to him, talking. She wasn't as infuriated as Dustin thought she would be. Then the alarm sounded. Prime's voice came over the intercom.

"Autobots assemble. Decepticons attacking."

Dustin attempted to get up.

"Oh no you don't. You stay right there."

Dustin reluctantly lied back down. She walked over to the control panel and flipped on one of the security cameras and watched the battle raging on outside.

Outside the Autobots were getting their chassis handed to them.

"Technobots charge!" ordered Optimus Prime.

"Throttlebots charge!" ordered Ultra Magnus.

The Technobots merged into Computron. Then the Aerialbots formed Superion. Then the Protections combined into Defensor. But the Decepticons had their combiners merge as well. The Stunticons formed Menasor, the Constructicons formed Devastator, and then the Combaticons merged into Bruticus. The Dinobots finally made their appearance.

"Here we are Optimus Prime. Here to save the Autobots again." They combined into Titanus. Then three jets appeared and landed. It was Sunstorm, Shadow Seeker and Tornadic. They combined with Thrust, Dirge, Ramjet, Thundercracker, and Skywarp. They formed Scimitar. Then another jet appeared, it was Noxica.

Sarah was watching the Autobots get their tailpipes kicked in. She couldn't take it anymore. She put on Dustin's exosuit and walked towards the car.

"Hey babe." Dustin called after her.

She looked back at him, with fury in her eyes.

"Good luck." He said.

She nodded then got in the car and drove out to the battle. As soon as she got outside she transformed.

"Man this is so cool. No wonder Dustin likes to do this." She said to herself.

"Shortstop, alright." Brawn said.

She headed straight for Noxica, pushing over fighting Decepticons. She stopped in front of her.

"What you didn't learn from our last encounter. Besides I thought you were dead?"

Shortstop shrugged. Then she fired her arm lasers at the female Decepticon. Caught off guard she was hit and fell to the ground. Shortstop jumped on her. They wrestled around. Noxica was on top then Shortstop was. Shortstop choked her then started punching her. Noxica pushed her away with her foot. Noxica fired her duel rifles at her. She dove around avoiding every shot. Shortstop got up and threw the boomerang at her and sliced her weapons in half. Then Noxica lunged at her. Shortstop pulled out the spoiler again and this time she acted as if were a bow and arrow. The arrow nailed Noxica in the shoulder. She walked over to the fallen Decepticon and kicked her in the face. The kick knocked her on her back. She shot back up and charged at her. Shortstop flipped over her and kicked her in the back. Then she jumped on her while she was face down. She grabbed her head and pulled it close to hers.

"I'm going to let you in on a little secret. I'm not Shortstop. I'm his fiancé."

Noxica eyes went wide. Then she turned Noxica's neck so hard and fast that she snapped it. She dropped the lifeless body. Everybody stopped fighting and looked at the victorious headmaster.

"Decepticons retreat."

They all took to the air and left. After they had left Shortstop revealed her true form. The Autobots were stunned. They all walked over and surrounded her.

"What you did was extremely dangerous." Prime said.

Sarah lowered her head slightly.

"But excellent job."

She raised her head and smiled. The Autobots cheered. She walked back into the medical bay and sat down next to Dustin. He looked up her. She was still wearing the exosuit without the helmet.

"Damn you look hot." He said.

She smiled and kissed him.

The Decepticons were in their control room, complaining. Which they should have gotten used to by now.

"Damn those Autobots." Megaton said.

"Yes, they killed my sister and I will get my revenge." Starscream said.

"We will destroy the Autobots. Mark my words we will destroy them all. Starting with that accursed Shortstop." Megatron said.


	27. Storming

For the past three days it's been raining. Only this time it was storming. It was dark and the lightning lit up the sky. You could only see the lights of Autobot City, you couldn't see the building itself, it looked as if the lights were just floating, until the lightning flashed then you could see Autobot City for a brief second. The Autobots were inside relaxing, well some were. Other Autobots, like Optimus Prime was standing in the control room waiting for something to happen. Ratchet, Wheeljack, First Aid and Perceptor were still finishing up Savage. They were still working out the "kinks" out of his system, so that he would be fully Autobot. His new name was Savage Noble. He had been lying in the medical bay for months, ever since he and Shortstop went at it and Shortstop knocked the diodes out of him. After that he and Shortstop became good friends. He lied there waiting for the four medics to repair him. There was still some damage in his system that was left from the Shortstop battle. He wondered where the headmaster was right now. He was probably with his fiancé. And he was right.

Dustin was sitting in a chair with his girlfriend cuddled up next to him, next to a fireplace. The power had gone out from the storm. He loved these summer storms but Sarah hated them. She was originally from the Midwest where storms like these meant that there was going to be a tornado around. She used to not be like that. She didn't always fear storms or tornados. A few years ago, her older brother was killed by a tornado. It turned out to be an unusual tornado. It was caused by the green Decepticon jet Tornadic. Even though she knows that it wasn't a natural storm, she is still terrified of them. Sarah grasped Dustin hard each time the thunder rolled. Dustin had his arm around her and slowly calmed her down. He slowly ran his hand up and down her arm, letting her know he was there and everything was going to be alright. Together they watched the fire crack and dance across the wood. They sat there for hours watching and waiting for something to happen. Just then something did happen. Dustin's communicator beeped. He sighed and hated the thought of those blasted Decepticons ruining another moment he had with Sarah. He held the communicator a few inches from his mouth.

"Shortstop here. What is it, Optimus?"

"We received a communication from the Decepticons. And one of them wants to talk to you."

"He wants to talk to me?"

"Affirmative."

"_Man, the Decepticons really must not like each other if they want to carry on a conversation with me."_ He thought.

"Alright I'll be right there." He said as he shut off the comm link.

"Duty calls babe, are you going to be alright by yourself or do you want to come with me?"

"I'll come with you. I need to talk to the female Autobots anyway."


	28. Talking with the Enemy

In Decepticon Headquarters, Weapon was planning another attack. He was sending his last subordinate: Cabal. Cabal was in his quarters on the Lyacon ship, meditating. He sat there relaxing his servos. He then opened his optics. He got up and walked to the Decepticon Control Room. Megaton and Galvatron were standing there at the screen and Weapon had just walked in.

"Cabal, obviously you know that you are going after Shortstop."

The honorable Lyacon nodded.

"Cabal, you will lead a task force, with the Decepticons of your choosing and attack Athens."

"As you wish."

Shortstop stood in the Autobot War Room waiting for the Decepticons to contact him. He hated waiting. He couldn't wait until he had defeated the Lyacons and him and Sarah could get on with their lives. Then he realized that since he was an Autobot, he would never have a normal life.

"_Speaking of Sarah where is she?"_ He wondered.

Sarah was in the rec room with Carly and the Female Autobots. They were talking about anything and everything. More specifically they were talking about the wedding.

"How was your wedding?" Sarah asked.

"It was an outside wedding, because the Autobots were there. We said our own vows and it was beautiful."

"I hope my wedding is too"

"It will be."

"Where are you going to have it?" Firestar asked.

"Well, Dustin and I were thinkin' of Memorial Hill. It's large enough and all of the Autobots will have no problem moving around up there."

They continued to talk while Blaster, Cliffjumper, Brainstorm, Kup and Hard Head walked out of the rec room and into the war room.

"Anything going on boss?" Hard Head asked.

Optimus Prime shook his head. Just then the screen popped on and Cabal was on it. They all looked at it in surprise.

"Shortstop, I presume?"

The headmaster nodded.

"I am calling you to tell you about our task force that is headed for Athens. You are to meet me near the power plant."

The screen went blank.

"Autobots, go after them. Shortstop, you're in charge."

"Yes sir."


	29. Good Answer Good Answer

Then Shortstop, Cliffjumper, Brainstorm, and Hardhead transformed. Blaster also transformed and landed on the seat of Cliffjumper. The six Autobots rolled out.

The Autobots drove around all over Athens, looking for the Decepticons. It was still dark and raining. They were near the convo when they found them stealing energon cubes from the power plant on OU's west green.

"Autobots, transform and attack." Ordered Shortstop

They all transformed. Brainstorm, Hard Head and Shortstop's heads attached themselves to their bodies. Brainstorm and Hard Head were part of the task force that were made Headmasters. Highbrow, Cerebros, and Cromedome were also headmasters. The Decepticons stopped and dropped the energon cubes. They looked as if they were in trouble by the police. Just then Blaster's twitch came back and he started playing the Cops theme song. Shortstop grinned. Blaster was damaged in a fight while him and Cosmos were on a mission and for some reason he will play an appropriate song for any situation. Ratchet and Wheeljack have both tried to fix him but can't find the problem anywhere.

"Decepticons, what are you going to do when we come for you?" Cliffjumper said.

The Decepticons took off running. Each Autobot took off after one. Shortstop was after Cyclonus. He chased him down all through out west green. Then once they got to Richland Avenue, he transformed and flew off.

"Damn it." Shortstop said.

"Don't worry about him. Worry about me, Shortstop." A voice said behind him.

He turned around to find the Lyacon Cabal behind him. Shortstop turned around to face him. The Lyacon stood about as tall as he did. He was maroon and black. He looked like an old samurai warrior.

"So, you're Cabal and you're an honorable Decepticon?"

"That is correct and I like to beat my opponents the old fashioned way, brutally."

He came running at Shortstop and swung at him. Shortstop easily dodged the punch. He then kicked Cabal in the side. The other Autobots who were also unsuccessful in capturing the Decepticons had come over to watch the fight. Cabal threw another punch; Shortstop caught it and threw him into a building. He came running out attempted to tackle the Autobot. Shortstop jumped over him and kicked him in the back. Shortstop grabbed a hold of Cabal's wrist and shoulder joint and repeatedly kicked him in the back. Cabal dropped to his knees.

"Ah come on, how do you expect to beat me?" He said with the sound of arrogance in his voice.

Then Cabal transformed. He didn't transform into a car or jet or any vehicle. He transformed into body armor. His transformation is covering himself with body armor.

"Good answergood answer."

The armored Decepticon knocked Shortstop away. Shortstop flew into a tree, knocking it over. Cabal pulled out his sword. Shortstop sighed. Then he pulled out his spoiler. They charged at each other. Their swords connected. It looked a fight from the middle ages. They dodged each other's thrust and blocked each other's swing. Just then, Shortstop jumped up, spun around and kicked Cabal in the face. The Lyacon stumbled back. Then Shortstop threw his boomerang at him. It hit him but it just fell to the ground. Shortstop's optics grew big.

"_Oh, damn"_ he thought

Cabal swung at him, Shortstop dodged it by moving to the side. Cabal just elbowed him in the face then kicked him in the chest. Shortstop fell. He stumbled to his feet. He stood there staring at his opponent. He quickly looked for his misplaced spoiler. He saw it behind Cabal. He charged at Cabal then at the last possible second he dove to the side as Cabal swung. He successfully obtained his spoiler. He stood there with his weapon raised, waiting for Cabal to attack. Cabal just stood there, then he put his sword away. Confused, Shortstop did the same. Then they ran at each other again. Cabal punched Shortstop then kicked him. Shortstop came back with a knee to the face and knelt down and tripped Cabal with his foot. While he was down Cabal was repeatedly kicked. Then he blocked a kick and grabbed Shortstop's foot and threw him into another building.

"Damn, me getting thrown into a building is really getting old." He said to himself.

He slowly walked to Cabal. He walked up, punched him, grabbed him by his shoulders and kneed him and then grabbed him and head butted him. Both warriors stumbled back.

"Ok, note to self. Never head butt again."

Shortstop noticed that Cabal was tiring. They charged at each other again. Shortstop grabbed Cabal and threw him to the ground. He got back up and stood there. Shortstop attempted to kick him but Cabal grabbed his foot. Shortstop just jumped up and kicked him with his other foot. The Lyacon went down. Shortstop backed off a bit. Cabal attempted to get up but stumbled down to his knees. Shortstop stood there waiting for another attack, but it never came. Cabal transformed back into his normal mode and pulled out his sword once again and held it out with both hands as if he were offering it to him. Shortstop walked over and grabbed the sword, but he just stood there confused. He didn't know what to do.

"You have beaten me, Shortstop. You are a very honorable and worth adversary. You have gained my respect. But now I need you to uphold an ancient samurai tradition. I need you to kill me."Shortstop's head cocked back in surprise.

"I know of the tradition but I didn't know that you were all for it."

Cabal nodded.

"I need you to do this so that I may enter the realm of the honored deactivated."

Shortstop nodded. Cabal set his hands at his knees and closed his optics and readied himself for the inevitable. Shortstop pulled back the sword as if he were "up to bat" and swung. The sword cut right through Cabal's neck. The body fell to the ground and the head lay next to it. Shortstop walked away.

"Alright Autobots, transform and return to base."


	30. Mysterious Dream

Part 7

The sky was orange and red. The sun was about to set. Dustin stood in his exosuit, next to his car. He faced a girl whose face shadowed by a hood, who was also carrying a child. The child was no older than a newborn.

"You need to get out of here." Dustin said.

"I can't leave you." The girl cried.

"You can and you must. I can't guarantee that I can protect you during the fight."

The girl held the baby tightly as she came closer to Dustin. Dustin hugged her and kissed her. She turned and ran off. She turned around to see Dustin's exosuit helmet unfolded around his head, then he transformed into Shortstop. He stood among the other Autobots. He looked as if he were in command of them. He looked across the war torn battle ground to the opposing Decepticons.

"Autobots, attack." Shortstop ordered.

They all charged forward and the Decepticons did the same. They fought until the bitter end.

The girl continued to run. She didn't even look back. She clutched her child and ran away from the raging battle.

Dustin awoke slightly confused. He rolled over and looked at the sleeping face of his beautiful fiancé. He lightly caressed her face and then finally drifted off to sleep.


	31. Wedding Day

It's a bright sunny September day. A slight breeze occasionally picks up but quickly dies down. There was something going on at Memorial Hill. It was a wedding, but not a normal wedding. Yes, there was a bride and groom, brides maids, a best man, ushers, and guests. Among the guests were the Autobots. The two getting married was Dustin and Sarah. Dustin wore that standard tux while Sarah wore the traditional white strapless gown. The couple to be, stood at the base of the Rodimus Prime statue. Optimus Prime stood in between the bride and groom as the minister. Spike was Dustin's best man and his ushers consisted of Wheeljack, Skyfire, Jazz and Ironhide. While Sarah's maid of honor was Carly, the other bride's maids were human. The bride's maids were Liz Dowler, Katie Kreimer, Tracie Harris and Sarah Klinger. Optimus Prime stood there reciting the speech that Dustin had given him to say. This was Prime's first wedding as minister and he was doing a very good job, Prime was at Spike and Carly's wedding along with the other Autobots. Dustin and Sarah gazed into each other's eyes as Prime said the vows. Now the part came up that every couple dreads at their wedding.

"If there is anybody or any mechanism that wishes these two should not be married speak now or forever hold your peace."

All of the Autobots looked around waiting for a Decepticon attack. Prime even looked to the skies to see if Megaton was up there. There was no attack and no Megaton. Dustin let out a sigh of relief; Sarah looked at him and smiled.

"Now I pronounce you man and wife. You may kiss the bride."

Dustin put his hands up to Sarah's face and kissed her. They guests cheered.

"I now give you Mr. And Mrs. Dustin Zofchak." Prime declared.

Then the Aerialbots transformed into their jet modes and took off. They flew around area creating sonic booms. They would have done fireworks but it was daytime. The bride and groom walked down the aisle while confetti was being thrown. They walked over to Dustin's car and got in. The human guests got into their own vehicles and drove to the reception area, which happen to be the Autobots rec room in Autobot City.

"Alright Autobots, lets transform and roll out."

The Autobots transformed into their vehicle modes and headed for the reception. They all arrived at the reception area. The rec room was redone to human and Autobot needs. A stage was set where Blaster was playing music, two bars were set up. Of course there were alcoholic drinks were for the humans and fresh energon for the Autobots. Everybody had a good time. Then Sarah decided it was time to sing. Sarah was a terrific singer. She was being looked at by different record companies even more so now that she was married to an Autobot. She took a hold of the microphone. Everybody stopped what they were doing to look at singing bride. She began to sing, "How do I live." She slowly walked around the stage then walked up to her new husband that was sitting at the head table. She sat down on his lap, put her arm over him and continued to sing.

"And I, baby, I don't know what I would do I'd be lost if lost you. If you ever leave baby you would take away everything real in my life and tell me"

Moments later the song ended.

"I love you, Dustin"

"I love you too, baby"

They kissed each other. Then they walked out to the dance floor. Sarah put her arms around Dustin's neck and Dustin put his hands on her lower back and they began to dance to K-Ci and JoJo's "All My Life." While they were dancing, Springer took Arcee out there as well as Fireflight and Moonracer, Inferno and Firestar, Ironhide and Chromia even Optimus Prime and Eleta One. They all had fun that night as they should. Dustin and Sarah wished that moment would never end. Like all good things the night came to an end. The guests left, some Autobots carried other over energized Autobots to their quarters. Dustin and Sarah went home to celebrate their wedding night. The day had gone off without a hitch.


	32. The Final Battle

At Decepticon Headquarters, Weapon was getting ready for the final battle.

"So, the Headmaster just got married. How quaint." Starscream said.

They all tried to ignore the terminated Decepticon and went back to the plan.

"I'm not going to have some fancy attack scheme. I'm just going to sit on top of a hill and take him out. I am you know a sniper."

Megaton nodded. The lone Lyacon left the room and headed for Autobot City.

Meanwhile Dustin had transformed into Shortstop and was outside with Sideswipe, Sunstreaker, Tracks, Jazz, Wheeljack, Red Alert, Skyfire and the newly repaired Autobot: Savage Noble. It was Savage's first day out since his battle with Shortstop. He has been restricted to the medical bay since then. Ratchet allowed him to go outside to get some fresh air. He walked around in his robot mode then transformed into his panther mode. He ran around, jumped through the air; he looked like a dog that had just been let out to play for the first time. Savage came over to Shortstop and transformed back into robot mode.

"Man it's a beautiful day out." Savage said

Shortstop nodded in agreement. He looked over to see the other Autobots just lying around relaxing. Just then Savage fell to the ground. Shortstop knelt down to see what was wrong. The other Autobots quickly came over. Savage was hit in the shoulder with something. He was still alive. Shortstop opened his comm. link.

"Medical emergency. Medical team report outside."

Moments later Ratchet came outside to see what the problem was. He saw Savage and knelt down to take a look at him. As soon as he bent over and shot was fired. The Autobots scattered. Everybody looked around to see where the shot originated. Shortstop's binocular visor slid down over his eyes. He saw who he suspected. It was Weapon.

"Autobots, fire on the hilltop." He ordered.

The Autobots raised their weapons and fired. Weapon dodged the photon charges and abandoned his post. Shortstop saw him run and he went after him. Weapon appeared from the woods and stood there in front of Shortstop. Shortstop looked him over. Weapon looked like Skywarp and Thundercracker except that he was gray in color. His left optic was burned out from the scar that went down the side of his face.

"So you want to do this now?" Shortstop asked.

"Lets finish this"

"One shall stand, one shall fall" Shortstop said

"That is how it shall end, my worthy adversary."

The two warriors charged at each other. They punched, kicked, and kneed each other. Both of them tried to gain an advantage over the other. They were well matched. Weapon fired his pistol and Shortstop fired his arm lasers. They both dodged their opponent's attacks. Finally Weapon shot Shortstop in the chest. He fell to the ground and lay there on his back. Weapon walked over to him and kicked him aside. He turned to the other Autobots to brag about his victory then was tackled from behind by Shortstop. Shortstop picked him up by his wings and threw him into the air. He transformed in midair and flew around and fired at Shortstop. Shortstop dove around avoiding the attack. He grabbed his spoiler and threw it at Weapon. The boomerang sliced through Weapon's wing. He went crashing into the ground. He transformed back into robot mode. He stood up, a little disoriented. Weapon pulled out his sniper rifle and swung at Shortstop with it. Shortstop grabbed it and snapped it in half. He threw the broken weapon aside and stood there facing Weapon. Weapon leapt at Shortstop, tackling him. Shortstop wrestled with Weapon, finally picking him up and throwing him against a tree. Weapon pulled a chunk out of the tree. The chunk was long with a pointed tip. He threw it at Shortstop. The object struck Shortstop's side. It didn't really faze him. Weapon fired his pistol at the Autobot. Shortstop dodged it, ran over and punched Weapon in the face knocking him back and causing him to lose his pistol. Shortstop stepped back and pulled the piece of wood out of his side. Weapon's forearm produced an energy beam. He ran over and sliced into Shortstop's already open wound. Shortstop stumbled back covering his wound, like a mother protecting its young. He stepped back a few more feet to give him some room from his attacker. Weapon ran and jumped into the air; he came down to deliver a deadly strike with his energy beam but was uppercut by Shortstop. Weapon fell onto his back. Shortstop ran up to attack, Weapon attempted to trip him but Shortstop jumped into the air. When he landed, he was hit in the chest by both of Weapon's feet. Shortstop fell on his back but quickly got up. Weapon had also gotten up. The two Transformers grabbed each other. Weapon was struggling to gain some sort of advantage, while Shortstop held him back.

"I'll rip out your optics." Weapon said infuriated that he hadn't defeated him yet.

Shortstop pushed Weapon's arms aside, picked him up by his head and threw him aside. Weapon landed on his face. Shortstop aimed his arm lasers at the defeated Lyacon leader. Weapon got to his hands and knees and noticed his lost pistol was behind a fallen tree.

"No more Shortstop, grant me mercy I beg of you?" he pleaded as he slowly crawled towards his weapon.

"You, who are without mercy, now plead for it. I thought you were made of sterner stuff." Shortstop said not noticing what Weapon was going after.

Just then Weapon dove for the Weapon and fired. Shortstop dove out of the way and avoided the photon charge. The charge hit the side of a wall and caused it to collapse. A woman screamed. Shortstop knew that scream. It was Sarah. He quickly rolled over to see the wall fall on her. Shortstop came running over. He and the other Autobots quickly uncovered her, but it was too late.

Shortstop's head flew off and transformed back into it's exosuit mode. Dustin's helmet folded into his collar. He knelt down and propped her up against his knee and took ahold of her hand. She slowly looked up at him as her life rapidly left her body. Blood trickled from the corners of her mouth.

"MEDIC!" Dustin screamed. He looked back down at his injured wife. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I should've taken the blast. " Dustin said as he struggled to fight back his tears.

Sarah coughed as blood came out of her mouth. "It's...not your fault." She said faintly.

"Yes. Yes it is my fault. I should've been hit. Not you." Dustin said letting the tears stream down his face. "This shouldn't have happened."

"Don't beat...yourself...up? In a war...there are going to be casualties." She said.

Dustin looked up at the Autobot City entrance. "WHERE'S THE DAMN MEDIC?" His attention went back to Sarah. "Just hold on, baby. Once Carly gets out here, we'll fix you up and you'll be fine. Ok?" Dustin said trying to reassure her and himself.

Sarah knew better. She knew how bad her wounds were and that she would not survive.

"No,... not this...(cough) time. There can't be anything...done to save me." She said with her voice getting even more faint. The color in her eyes began to fade. She attempted a smile. "Even though...I was against the Transformers in...the beginning. I...must admit...it was...fun." At that moment her smile faded and her grip on Dustin's hand loosened. Dustin buried his head into the body of his wife.

Finally, at that moment Carly came running out. But she was too late. Sarah had already died. She stopped in her tracks to see the Autobots towering over Dustin and the body of Sarah. She ran over to them.

"You're too late. She's dead." Dustin said.

He gently laid her down and immediately turned around to face Weapon. His helmet folded back over his head and he transformed back into Shortstop. His eyes were glowing brightly. He saw Weapon laugh and take off into the sky. Shortstop knew he couldn't fly but two Autobots could: Sideswipe and Sunstreaker.

"I'm sorry Sideswipe. I have to do this." He said as he placed a hand on Sideswipe's shoulder.

"Sorry about wha..." he fell to the ground unconscious.

Shortstop gained Sideswipe's flying ability. With his eyes still glowing brighter than a mag light at full power, he jumped into the air and went after Weapon. He quickly caught up with him. Weapon turned around and was surprised to see Shortstop up there with him. Shortstop held onto Weapon's left arm and threw a punch that connected with his face. He repeatedly punched him. He didn't give Weapon the chance to retaliate. He held on to Weapon's left arm so tightly that he ended up ripping it off. He then took the arm and hit Weapon across the face with it. He tossed the arm behind him and continued to punch Weapon's face. He then grabbed a hold of Weapon's right shoulder then shoved his hand into his torso.

"This is for Sarah!"

He fired his arm lasers into him. Three lasers came out of the back of Weapon. Shortstop was losing his ability to fly, so he grabbed Weapon and brought him down with him. On the way down he continued to punch him in the face. They hit the ground so hard that it left a huge crater in the ground. He got up and walked towards Autobot City. He stopped turned around and walked back to the fallen Lyacon.

"This is also for Sarah."

He grabbed a hold of Weapon's head and twisted it. He had snapped his neck. He dropped the head and walked over to Sarah's lifeless body. The other Autobots backed off and gave him some space. He picked her up and brought her inside. He laid her down on the table, transformed back into his exosuit form and his helmet folded back revealing only his head. The Autobots who were in the room had left. He grabbed ahold of her hand and cried.


	33. We Will Remember

The day of the funeral was a typical day. It was raining. Dustin and the Autobots attended the funeral. Dustin had transformed into Shortstop so that nobody would see him cry. He hated when people saw him crying. Plus he didn't want to give Megaton the satisfaction of seeing him in pain. Jazz put an arm on his shoulder.

"You ok m'man."

Shorstop nodded. Then Optimus Prime spoke up.

"She was a good friend to us all. A good friend and a good wife. We shall remember you Sarah."

Then all the Autobots said in unison.

"We shall remember."

The End

Author's Note: So, what did you all think? I hope you liked it but I won't know if you don't review. So, please leave a review and please check out my other stories and leave a review. And yes I have this same message at the end of my other stories.


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